Social democracy

International ideological and political movement made up of political parties, youth groups, women’s groups, unions and cooperatives. S.D. arose in Germany in the mid-nineteenth century as a political movement of wage-earning workers against capital, and was influenced by the ideas of Marx, Lassalle, Proudhon, Bernstein, Kautsky and others. In the 1870s the anarchists split off from this movement, as did the communists during the First World War, both groups forming their own internationals. At the end of the nineteenth century and during the first half of the twentieth, this group of workers parties was known as the Second International. Following the Second World War in the 1950s, the social democratic and socialist parties came together to form the Socialist International, which is still active today, headquartered in London. Social democratic parties assimilated the principles of ethical socialism. They do not acknowledge the class struggle as the motor of the historical process, though they defend the interests and rights of salaried workers; they are partisans of vigorous social politics; they favor the regulation of relations between capital and labor not only by means of corresponding agreements between unions and management but also by the State. They also support anti-monopolistic legislation, minority rights, economic and social programs for those most in need, some degree of redistribution of social wealth at the expense of the most wealthy, etc. S.D. favors peace, international cooperation and independence for colonial states. Finally, it supports the idea of human socialism as a model for the society of the future.