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- Not to be confused with Social democracy.
Democratic Socialism refers to the theory of achieving socialism through electoral means, working within the confines of bourgeois liberal democracy. Democratic Socialism rejects the Marxist–Leninist theory of achieving socialism by utilizing the state to oppress the bourgeoise with the interest of achieving communism, as they perceive it to be "authoritarian".
Origin
Democratic Socialisms origins can be traced to multiple 19th century movements, including the Chartist movement in the United Kingdom, and Marxism in Germany. The more distinct beliefs of Democratic Socialism, however, are more predicated in German Social Democrat Eduard Bernstein's belief in Evolutionary Socialism, that capitalisms demise would come from incremental legislation instead of through revolution. This ideology is an outright rejection of Marxism.
Critiques
Many Marxists argue that in a democratic socialist society, the bourgeoisie would still be the ruling class, and thus, have significant economic and political power, and will use that power to undermine the establishment of a socialist system, as they would not be willing to extinguish their own class.