I’ve yammered on about what socialism is: the common ownership of the means of production. One thing I haven’t really touched on is the “democratic” part of “Democratic Socialism.” “Democracy” is almost always considered a good thing… but in many instances, it isn’t. When incorporated into socialism, it’s potentially nightmarish. Attend:
The author points to a glowing description of “Democratic Socialism” that I have previously pointed and laughed at. One of the primary utopian fantasies of DS is that factories and the like would be controlled by the workers, with decisions made democratically. The creation of products would be a democratic process. What’s not to like about that? Well… pretty much anything, especially if what *you* might happen to want is not what the majority wants.
Instead of individual capitalists deciding what to produce in their endlessly varied, constantly competing private businesses, “without any democratic input from the rest of society,” control over industry and decisions about what to produce would reside in state planning agencies. And imagine their decisions perfectly, if improbably, reflect the actual democratic will of workers, whether in the nation; or a state, like Ohio or Utah; or a metropolitan area, like Maricopa County or Oklahoma City.
Popular control is finally realized! So: How popular is Islam? How many Muslim prayer rugs would the democratic majority of workers vote to produce? How many Korans? How many head scarves? How much halal meat would be slaughtered? What share of construction materials would a majority of workers apportion to new mosques?
Under capitalism, the mere existence of buyers reliably gives rise to suppliers. Relying instead on democratic decisions would pose a big risk for Muslims. And Sikhs. And Hindus. And Jews. And maybe even Catholics.
Look at the products I produce: CAD models of generally somewhat obscure aerospace and sci-fi vehicles; historical publications about *really* obscure aerospace vehicles; and as-yet-unpublished science fiction. In an economy that cannot provide everything to everyone, these sort of products would *never* win any sort of election. the only way they are available to those relatively tiny minority of folks who might want them is because their creation, manufacture and sales are *not* open to the democratic process.
Look at it another way: there are, let’s say, fifty auto manufacturing facilities in a democratic socialist region. What cars are the worker going to vote to produce? Some will vote to produce Supercars, because they’re awesome. Some will vote to produce cars that are easy to produce. How many will vote to produce the most economically profitable cars? What if every factory decides to manufacture Ferraris?
