Transcription
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Academy for Social Democracy explains Social Democracy. This is Juliana. She's a politics student together with her flatmate, Marco. She's talking about social democracy. Marco only had a rough idea about it until now.
Juliana explains to him that social democracy is based on three fundamental values: freedom, justice and solidarity. Freedom means that every individual should be able to decide how he or she lives. The state and society should not interfere arbitrarily in terms of financial security, education and social opportunities. Every individual can live this freedom actively.
Justice means initially that in the eyes of the law, everyone is equal, irrespective of where he or she comes from, his or her family background and his or her sex. But justice also means that Juliana and Marco are given the same opportunities as everyone else, and their achievements and requirements are taken into account.
Solidarity is about everybody being willing to help each other. It's the glue which holds society together. However, these values are still not precise enough to derive concrete rules from them for how to live in harmony. This is why social democracy is also based on the two human rights covenants enacted by the United Nations, which apply in numerous countries.
Marco knows that there are both negative and positive civil rights and liberties. But what's the difference? Juliana explains to him the negative civil rights and liberties are protective rights which protect him from interferences. Positive civil rights and liberties make it possible for him to be able to practice his civil rights and liberties.
Libertarian democracy requires negative rights and liberties to be given priority at all times. Positive rights and liberties are only assured when they do not impede negative ones. In social democracy, positive and negative rights and liberties are taken equally seriously, as without the positive rights, some people would also not have access to the negative ones.
Juliana explains this, taking the negative liberty, freedom of opinion, as an example. Marco has the right to speak his mind freely. To be able to practice this right, he must have the opportunity to develop his own opinion. This is why education is important. This is a positive liberty and is financed by all citizens by means of taxes. In other words, a small interference in the right to own property. In this way, the positive and negative rights and liberties complement each other.
Marco has discovered a completely new side to social democracy. Now he wants to learn more and will be speaking up for his interests more in the future. After all, democracy needs Democrats.
Further information on the topic from the FES in the Social Democracy Reader Number 1: "Foundations of Social Democracy" by the Academy for Social Democracy. Everything from at and with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Division Political Academy. Division for International Cooperation.