The Social Democratic Party: A Political Party Overview and Analysis

The Social Democratic Party is the second oldest party in Demarcia. Founded in April 2017, it is a self-professed "party of the working class" and is currently the dominant party in Demarcian politics as of February 2020, when it ended nearly three years of Demarcian National Party dominance.

The Social Democratic Party was established under the name Pancake Party by Penstubal and Sheeepie (the former being one of the founding fathers of Demarcia, together with SuperMiron and Snowstormer, who together founded the Waffle Party, now the Demarcian National Party instead).

The Social Democratic Party is the most ideological of all three parties in the country. It started off as a broad church political party including views from social democracy to as far right as classical liberalism; overtime it evolved into a regionalist political party advocating the interests of the residents of the former Pancake State (which existed from November 2017 until April 2018) and shifted left to adopt a libertarian socialist ideology.

As a result of the April 2018 crisis, when Demarcia briefly split apart as a result of grievances by Penstubal and his party colleagues against SuperMiron, and as a result of changing circumstances in the country with the Demarcian National Party establishing itself as the constitutional ruling party, the Pancake Party (now rebranded as the Liberal Democratic Party) pushed right-wards and adopted a classical liberal to social liberal ideology.

However, by January 2020, the Liberal Democratic Party once again returned to its more left-wing origins. It rebranded once again, this time into the Social Democratic Party, and adopted a democratic socialist outlook. Within a few months, the party would finally have a firm, unchanging ideology - social democracy, and the party is today firmly centre-left.

The Social Democratic Party has an incredibly complicated ideological history. However, due to the fact that the same values, considerations and fundamental philosophical principles have been guiding it throughout its four years of existence, it can be considered a fundamentally social democratic party and firmly rooted in the social democratic tradition.

A prominent influence on the Social Democratic Party is democratic socialism, something it still recognises and celebrates to this day; however, although the party declares itself a "progressive political party striving towards a democratic socialist future" and has democratic socialist factions, the party in general is not genuinely democratic socialist.

In order to understand why the party decides to emphasise its democratic socialist roots, it is necessary to understand social democracy to begin with; it is an ideology that works to reform capitalism so as to expand democracy into the economic sphere and ensure the markets are subordinated to society and serve its needs, rather than the other way round. Social democracy is not a pro-capitalist ideology; it is just not explicitly anti-capitalist, and instead focuses on transforming society and the economy, regardless of what system they are working in. Social democrats also set socialism as a distant end goal - but it is the movement towards it that matters, not the final destination itself. Additionally, they reject the Marxist definition of socialism as a separate economic system, and rather describe it in "ethical terms" - as a just, free, solidary society of equals.

Because of those reasons and the explanation in the paragraph above, it would be inaccurate to describe the Social Democratic Party as a democratic socialist party in the traditional sense, the sense it is primarily understood; they are not socialists (except for certain factions within the party) and their references to socialism mean more so an ethical aspiration than a different economic system, as evidenced by the fact that they haven't made a single attempt to transition to a socialist economic system ever since they came to power in February 2020.

The Social Democratic Party's politics have been firmly aligned with social democratic values and principles. In their legislative endeavours and actions in government, they had always worked to strengthen the welfare state, expand the social safety net, protect the rights of the labour movement and increase their collective power, reinforce fundamental values such as liberty, justice and equality in the political, social and economic spheres, curb the power of the markets and ensure that capitalism works for the people, protect vulnerable groups in society, guarantee free, high-quality healthcare and education, and so forth.

How similar is the Social Democratic Party to other social democratic parties around the world? What are good examples of social democratic parties they are quite similar to?

As has been stated, the Social Democratic Party is a firmly social democratic party and its roots, like most social democratic parties, lie in the socialist movement and in the labour movement. The party would feel incredibly close at home with such parties as the UK Labour Party, the German Social Democratic Party, the French Socialist Party and the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party.

Since January 2020, the Social Democratic Party of Demarcia has undergone essentially the same path that the typical global social democratic party has over the last few decades; they all used to be far more radical, often even Marxist, then mellowed into more moderate democratic socialist parties, only to become fully entrenched in the centre-left as pragmatic, reasonable social democratic parties. Most global political parties have adopted the Third Way political philosophy, which seeks to reconcile liberalism with the principles of social democracy. The Demarcian Social Democrats haven't been immune to their influence either, which is visible in the Granita Group faction of the party.

There are some differences between the global social democratic parties and the Social Democratic Party of Demarcia; namely, the Social Democratic Party of Demarcia has been much more bold and decisive in environmental issues and combating climate change, something that social democratic parties worldwide haven't put as much of a focus on. Additionally, Demarcia's Social Democrats take a strong libertarian stance on social and cultural issues and civil liberties, global social democrats are very liberal on those issues as well, but have been open to limiting them in the past in some instances, such as responding to terrorism by supporting increased surveillance.

The Social Democratic Party of Demarcia has been most inspired by the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, whose philosophy and appeal is quite unique compared to most other social democratic parties; rather than being a purely class-based party, they promote the philosophy of the folkhemmet, the people's home (as Swedish prime minister Per Albin Hansson put it), a kind of middle way between capitalism and socialism that welcomes everybody of all backgrounds and seeks to unite people to create a better society:

"The good home knows no privileged or misfortuned, no favorites or undesired. There no one looks down on the other. There none try to gain benefits on the others expense, the strong do not oppress and plunder the weak. In the good home reigns equality, kindness, cooperation, helpfulness."

Overall, despite some small differences, the Social Democratic party of Demarcia appears to be a very accurate representative of the social democratic movement in Demarcia and is very similar to social democratic parties around the world. It remains to be seen, however, how the party will evolve, and whether it will remain in lockstep with global social democratic parties or carve its own path.

Demarcian Inquirer Team