Sorry I didn't know which other community to post this onπ . So let me take example of my country, Well so what most people don't know, is that India is a socialist democracy by the constitution, and I must admit before I start that yes, there's plenty of problems with this country, but I was surprised by how deep socialist roots go in this country, so I thought a few of India's policies would make an excellent case study.
Firstly, a subtle one, existence of MRP, maximum retail price, on everything you buy. Packet of lays, coke, medicine, everything has an MRP, over which you cannot sell the product for. Enforcement had been weak historically, but even then you would only see people selling above MRP in amusement parks or movie theatres, for everyday shopping, you are almost always likely to pay the MRP price. I was surprised to know that such law doesn't exist in the west, though feel free to correct me.
Second, India's medicine patent laws. India has strict 'non evergreening' laws, which means a patent of a medicine cannot be extended unless you made the medicine better. Also government can give orders to bypass medicine patents if deemed necessary.
Third the farming in India. A nice rabbithole to dig in, but I am picking one example, Amul, the most popular brand of milk in India, is less like a company and more like a co-operative society, where they co-operate with regional dairy farms. Most of the money made by selling the milk actually goes back to the farmers.
Plenty of examples, but just these few I could think of. Infact MRP does not even exist in China, so in that policy, India is literally more left than China.
Yeah again, Indian laws in practice are riddled with corruption, but I think the template they work in are interesting, and I think west would tackle those problems a lot better.
Any more examples of socialist democracies?
Great discussion!
First order of business; let's define "socialism", or "Democratic socialism", because as a citizen of the US, this (these) terms have been bastardized beyond recognition.
Second order of business; the term "left" is also muddled (certainly in my country, but also in the global context). Historically it's those who are nationalist (don't want external rule). Modern usage seems less concrete.
I like the idea of MRP for staple goods. Are there any producers that make the cost of products below the MRP?
Socialism is a system by which the working classes control the state, and public ownership is the principal aspect of the economy.
If I think of the historical meaning of leftism, I immediately think of marxism, but this would be antinationalist, as the goal is specifically unite all workers of the world and ignoring the country borders. Anarchism also abolishes nation states. What were you talking about in your comment?
A correction on nationalism with respect to Marxism: nationalism against imperialism and colonialism is progressive, as to truly be liberated the people must not be under threat of empire. Nationalism within the imperial core is reactionary as it protects imperialism.
Oh, well mrp is mostly for packed food and goods. It's extremely rare to find stuff below MRP in normal shops, but some wholesale grocery stores would sell stuff for lower than the MRP.
For stuff like vegetables and fruits, we don't practice MRP, but at the same time, that vegetable is far more likely to come from a local farmer than in USA. Actually unless you buy from shopping markets, that vegetable is 100% from local farmer, and most people don't buy from shopping markets, they buy from local vegetable vendors. There's plenty of government intervention in agriculture that protects local farmers, but currently I don't remember much of it