As alarming as it is, more and more people are beginning to think of ‘social democracy’ as a socialist phenomenon, tethering it to other socialist ideologies—namely Democratic Socialism. This is an incredibly false notion, a term usually hurled by a clueless individual at the Nordic states: often Sweden, Finland and Norway. Now, how does Social Democracy compare to Democratic Socialism? The terms seem similar, yes, and often they seem so, but the ideologies both have very different end goals.
Democratic Socialism is still socialist: emphasizing democracy, advocating for workers’ ownership of the means of production, and a primarily democratic path to socialism via electoralism. Social Democracy has degraded into a capitalist ideology that insists on a welfare state and only partial public ownership. Social Democracy tried to reform capitalism, but was unfortunately absorbed by it as the ideology kept shifting to the right.
Historically, both were very close, and I would go as far as to say they were one and the same. Even nowadays, some Social Democratic parties consider themselves both DemSoc and SocDem. In the early 1900s, the term Social Democracy was a term for almost any type of socialist. Even Bolsheviks like Lenin and Stalin were members of a Social Democratic party! This definition held up until the Russian Revolution, when it came to refer exclusively to reformist socialists (like modern day Democratic Socialists) that wanted to participate in the electoral system and bring about socialism through the ballot box. One group of Social Democrats that wished to give rise to Socialism was the first major and explicit Social Democratic party–the Social Democratic Party of Germany, or the SPD. The Social Democratic movement was plagued with internal strife early on, leading to the first major split that happened during World War I, because most of the Party was pro-war and started giving in to nationalism. To the moderates’ dismay, the anti-war left faction ended up splitting in 1917 and eventually merged into the Communist Party of Germany.
From that point on, the Social Democratic movement kept growing throughout Europe. During the unstable times of the Weimar Republic, political violence was rampant in Germany as socialists, communists, nationalists, and fascists fought in the streets and organized paramilitaries. I plan to write a separate article about this, so I won’t go too heavily into it here, but my point is that the Social Democratic Party was much closer to Democratic Socialism than modern day Social Democracy and formed organizations like the Iron Front to fight against Nazism, Monarchism, and Stalinism. The modern Social Democrat movement still uses the Iron Front symbol, however if an Iron Front member from that time saw what Social Democracy is now, they’d certainly affiliate with Democratic Socialism.
Unfortunately after World War II, Social Democrats shifted away from Marxism. As the Cold War began, they did not wish to be affiliated with the Marxists and Communism. They wanted to become their own ideology: a ‘compromise between Capitalism and Socialism’. Even after a couple decades of shifting to the right, we Democratic Socialists still tolerate or even embrace Social Democracy. We have similar aims and even similar means. Social Democrats wouldn’t mind voting for Democratic Socialists and often the reverse is true. In America, there are some politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who are arguably much closer to Social Democrats than Democratic Socialists, but still refer to themselves as the latter.
So to sum up, Social Democracy is a capitalist ideology that advocates for partial public ownership, a regulated economy, and strong protections, while Democratic Socialism is a socialist ideology that wishes for a transition to some type of economic socialism and emphasizes democracy and reformism.
The Rose Outlook 
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