Democratic road to socialism

The democratic road to socialism is a political philosophy within Marxism and democratic socialism which favors transitioning from capitalism to socialism through representative democracy and building an organized mass movement of the working class.

Nicos Poulantzas is often considered the first to formalize the term, democratic road to socialism. :74-8 For Poulantzas, the democratic road to socialism refers to a form of democratic socialism that commits to pluralist representative democracy alongside an extension of participatory democracy. Poulantzas viewed political liberties in liberal democracies as "the result of popular struggles," but also believed that liberal democracy "helps reproduce the capitalist state regime." :23 He therefore advocated for a Marxist and socialist democracy with strong labor unions, territorial popular assemblies, and socialist communitarianism that would enable a radical transformation of the state. :24 Yet, institutions of representative democracy would be "an essential condition of democratic socialism" to regulate decentralized models like workers' councils in order for the working class to collectively wield the political power and technical expertise necessary to direct a complex socialist society.

Some academics, activists, and political commentators also apply the term democratic road to socialism to The Chilean Way to Socialism and the Presidency of Salvador Allende, a Marxist and democratic socialist in Chile. While Allende and the moderate factions of Popular Unity and the Socialist Party of Chile, which he reflected, never adopted the term, the democratic road to socialism has been applied to the 1970 to 1973 Chilean experience due to the Allende administration's commitment to Marxism, representative democracy, a gradual transition to socialism, and broader social movement politics.

The democratic road to socialism is distinguished from evolutionary socialism to its right, as espoused by Eduard Bernstein, which advocates for incremental reform by primarily parliamentary means within liberal democracy, with the goal of ultimately achieving socialism through the state. Yet, it is also distinguished from revolutionary socialism to its left, which views capitalism as only able to be completely overthrown by non-reformist means, and does not see a transformative "capture" of the liberal state as a viable means to reach a socialist democracy.

The democratic road to socialism is espoused by certain socialist politicians, such as Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera, :xii and groups, such as the Bread and Roses caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America. The democratic road to socialism has influenced the development of Eurocommunism and the ideological trajectory of parties such as Syriza. Additionally, Tristram Hunt and Bruno Jossa argue that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels grew skeptical of "top-down revolutions" in their later writings, in favor of "a peaceful, democratic road to socialism."