Democratic Socialists Seek Capital Control

Leading democratic socialists, as summarized in a recent book review, are not merely advocating Scandinavian‑style social democracy but a sequence of reforms intended to remove capitalists' control over productive resources and replace it with social ownership or democratic control mechanisms. The authors interrogate whether a non‑Soviet, economically productive socialism is feasible and how to design institutions that avoid the failures of twentieth‑century state planning. — If electorally successful socialists explicitly aim to shift ownership of productive assets, policy debates and electoral coalitions will have to grapple with structural economic changes (not just welfare expansions), raising the stakes of local and national contests.