Social Democracy

The argument for social democracy rests upon the premise of the idea of "public goods". This is an idea taken as self evident by social democrats and most America "progressives" today. The idea is that there are some goods and services, for instance railways and education, that are simply impossible to do exclusively in private economic ways. The state must, if these goods and services are to exist, must fund these activities.

If these goods and services do not exist then, so the theory goes, there is simply no nation. (so this progressive idea ironically accepts the idea of nationalism or a strong nation, supposedly a conservative idea) So, for the progressive social democrat, the existence of the nation itself depends upon some form of social democracy.

Another idea upon which social democracy rests is that of the corrosive effect of inequality. Where inequality is rampant any democratic government is at best dysfunctional, at worst impossible. This is because democratic government depends upon the trustful bonds of citizens to one another. This idea was first introduce in the 13 century by Ibn Khaldun, the Arab political philosopher. His idea of "Asabiya", societal trust, was considered to be the bond under which society thrived. With the diminishing of asabiya comes the decline of society. For the social democrat "rampant free markets" diminish trust or asabiya and thus lead to social decline