Twitter Thread: Since this subject has been discussed recently, this thread will attempt to provide a brief but informative discussion on the topic of social democracy - what it is and what is isn't.

Social democracy is a form of regulated capitalism that advocates a strong welfare state, an ebullient labour movement, high social spending, and a myriad of other bold progressive policies in order to broaden social and economic equality.

It was originally a form of socialism: those such as Eduard Bernstein were proponents of a reformist way to achieve a socialist society - now known as 'democratic socialism' - and was often used interchangeably with terms like socialism and even communism.

This started to change around the Second World War. With FDR's New Deal policies proving a success, social democracy evolved into its modern definition, based upon the intellectual framework of the New Deal. This is would prove successful in the aftermath of said war.

Today, it continues to have a massive following. The candidacy of Bernard Sanders further made social democracy and progressivism central tenets of the mainstream Democratic Party. Other modern progressives include Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich.

Now into clearing misconceptions: As I will further elucidate, social democracy is not 'neoliberalism' or 'socialism.' Beginning with the former:

Neoliberals advocate policies such as privatization, deregulation, austerity, economic globalization, free trade, and open borders. Social democrats oppose most, if not all, of these measures.

Socialism - defined as social ownership of the means of production - is also held in contention with social democracy. Social democrats still believe in capitalism, thus meaning the means of production should still be primarily private-owned.

Today, social democrats advocate policies to combat income and economic inequality, regulate the market economy, use of government intervention to correct market errors, universal healthcare, and other progressive policies. Hope you enjoyed this thread.