Social Welfare and Democracy

Abstract

Social democracy is an ideology that exists within the broader socialist movement. It is a political, social, and economic theory that aims to promote political and economic democracy within the framework of a capitalist-oriented mixed economy. The core of social democracy is the commitment to representative and participatory democracy, income redistribution mechanisms, the management of the economy in the public interest, and the implementation of social welfare policies. By the late 20th century, social democracy became associated with Keynesianism, the Nordic model, the social-liberal paradigm, and welfare states due to the sustained leadership of social democratic parties during the post-war consensus and their influence on socioeconomic policy in Northern and Western Europe. It is often seen as both the reformist branch of democratic socialism and the most common form of contemporary Western socialism.