Would Democratic Socialism Be Better?

by Lane Kenworthy

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 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.

230 pages, Hardcover

Published June 10, 2022

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

So if people know that Socialism leads to hunger, rationing, and gulag, maybe adding more buzz words would help. Kenworthy's next book would be about Organic Local Equitable Democratic Socialism.