Caroline P. Ch-2

Q: What is paradoxical about the term "democratic socialism"?

A: Socialism began as a backlash against the French Revolution and was “recognized as the gravest threat to freedom” (28) and democracy, as defined by De Tocqueville, “extends the sphere of individual freedom” (29), where as “socialism restricts it” (29). Thusly, “democracy as an essentially individualist institution stood in an irreconcilable conflict with socialism” (29). The main point on which these two political forms disagree then, is on the subject of freedom. Democracy viewed freedom as “freedom from coercion, freedom from the arbitrary power of other men, release from the ties which left the individual no choice but obedience to the orders of a superior to whom he was attached” (30). The socialists promised a “new freedom” which was actually “the old demand for an equal distribution of wealth” (30).