Bill of Rights socialism is the belief that the United States Bill of Rights advocated for a socialist society and that if need be, a new United States Bill of Rights that explicitly advocated for that should be made. The concept was first mentioned by Socialist Workers Party in 1976. Communist Party USA has advocated for expanding the United States Constitution to include the right to join a union, the right to a fair-paying job and others. Bill of Rights socialism has also been advocated by the Democratic Socialists of America.
Concept
In 2012, the concept was revived by the Democratic Socialists of America, who proposed the following public policies in order to achieve basic human social and economic rights whose implementation would help to achieve freedom and dignity for all Americans:
- Single-payer healthcare
- Affordable and safe housing
- Universal childcare
- Progressive taxation
- Tuition-free higher education
- Income security
- Leisure time
- Healthy Environment
- Free association
- Cutting military expenditures
- A return to a Keynesian model
- Maximum wage ceilings
Criticism
From the right
The idea of Bill of Rights socialism has drawn ire from right-libertarian critics. Writing for the Future of Freedom Foundation, Richard Embley described Franklin D. Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights and the idea of a social Bill of Rights as a command economy and "regulatory socialism".