Would Democratic Socialism Be Better?

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Interest in democratic socialism is on the rise, but this wide-ranging comparison of two systems shows that the Nordic model of capitalism achieves virtually everything that contemporary democratic socialists say we should want.

Socialism is back in the conversation, and recent polls suggest the share of young Americans who have a favorable impression of socialism is about the same as the share that have a favorable view of capitalism. The case for a modern democratic socialism is that capitalism is bad, or at least not very good, and that socialism would be an improvement. To fully and fairly assess democratic socialism's desirability, Lane Kenworthy argues in Would Democratic Socialism Be Better?, we need to compare it to the best version of capitalism that humans have devised: social democratic capitalism. Kenworthy offers a close look at the evidence about how capitalist economies have performed on an array of outcomes. He finds that social democratic capitalism achieves virtually everything that contemporary democratic socialists say we should want.

Lane Kenworthy is Professor of Sociology and Yankelovich Chair in Social Thought at the University of California-San Diego. He studies the causes and consequences of living standards, poverty, inequality, mobility, employment, economic growth, social policy, taxes, public opinion, and politics in
the United States and other affluent countries. He is also the author of The Good Society, Social Democratic Capitalism (Oxford, 2020), How Big Should Our Government Be? (2016, with Jon Bakija, Peter Lindert, and Jeff Madrick), Social Democratic America (Oxford, 2014), Progress for the Poor (Oxford,
2011), Jobs with Equality (Oxford, 2008), Egalitarian Capitalism (2004), and In Search of National Economic Success (1995). His essays and shorter pieces have appeared at his blog Consider the Evidence, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Boston Review, and elsewhere.