social democracy
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social democracy
political parties of the Left, whose programmes embrace SOCIALISM, but which pursue these objectives by electoral and parliamentary means, eschewing insurrection or violent revolution. Initially the term had a currency mainly within Marxism. In time, it has come to refer more widely to non-Marxist reformist parties of the Left, including the British Labour Party. Most recently it has been used to refer to political parties and policies which assert the value of plural social institutions and a MIXED ECONOMY, as against either a ONE-PARTY SYSTEM and a COMMAND ECONOMY, or the untrammelled working of a free MARKET ECONOMY.Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000