Why was the revolutionary road out of capitalism abandoned for an evolutionary one? Vivek Chibber explores how socialist parties moved from revolution to reform, but why real progress will always mean a conflict with capital.
Social democratic politics have been part of the socialist movement for over a century. Some features, like the commitment to pursuing economic rights for the working class via the state, have remained consistent over time. But when did social democratic ambitions to overthrow capitalism turn into efforts to reform the system?
In this episode of the Jacobin Radio podcast Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber takes a broad look at the early agenda of social democratic parties. Through an examination of their views on the state, class, and socialism, he unpacks social democracy’s relationship to the Left’s politics today.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. You can listen to the full episode here. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
So, from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, there have been many different parties and political figures labeled “social democratic.”
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