By Patty Friend
One of the attractive things about being a social democrat is the fact that it is a pragmatic ideology.
Let’s look at economics. Unlike revolutionary Communism, social democrats believe the capitalist system can be improved by adding elements of socialism to capitalism for a mixed economy. The Social Security system is a citizen-owned insurance company run by the government that provides retirement security to all who pay into the system. Medicare is similar, providing health insurance to retirees and the disabled. However, it’s hard to say that Social Security in America, along with unemployment insurance, a legal structure for collective bargaining, and all other social democratic reforms, have hoisted anything like the old Soviet economy on America.
Democracy is another belief held dear by social democrats that revolutionary communists reject. I should say the political structure known as the democratic republic, as a total democracy might not provide civil liberties like freedom of the press, religion, and assembly. In addition, a total democracy might not use legislators to make laws; it might allow citizens to craft legislation and implement it via vote. This is impractical because professional legislators know much more about writing laws than your average citizen. The ancient Greek city-states practiced something like this in allowing citizens and not legislators to craft and vote on legislation. However, remember that that was only in the city-states, as in the agricultural world that defined ancient Greek city-states, most still lived in the country and farmed. In addition, slaves, and ancient Greece was a slave society, and women, ancient Greece was also a patriarchal society, were not allowed to vote. In keeping with the tradition of democracy, the democratic republic allows for the removal of legislators in elections. In allowing this, social democrats allow for a revolution within democratic limits. It could be said that social democracy delivers power to the people in the political and economic realms and avoids the pitfalls of total democracy.
There’s a move away from democratic ways in the State of Missouri. Like other states, Missouri has a referendum process that allows citizens to amend the state’s constitution. One can call this semi-direct democracy. It enables citizens to make laws themselves if certain conditions are met while not doing away with professional legislators. Switzerland has it on a national scale. If one wants to bring a referendum to vote, signatures of registered voters in Missouri must be collected. Republicans in Missouri have recently aimed at this form of semi-direct democracy, a taste of Switzerland in the conservative state. Remember, corporate America can play the referendum game as well, as corporate front groups have the money to hire staff to gather names to push legislation favorable to them.
The Republicans proposed legislation came after a move by certain groups to overturn Missouri’s almost total ban on abortion via state referendum. In response, Democrats engaged in a two-day filibuster. Currently, a referendum can pass by a majority vote, but the proposed legislation would require a referendum also to receive a majority vote in five of the eight Congressional districts, giving rural areas more power even though they are sparsely populated. Some Republicans appear to want to put the proposal on the August ballot, hoping to raise the bar for amendments ahead of a potential abortion rights vote in the election month of November.
Historically, most petitions to change Missouri’s constitution have failed. There have been 69 citizen-driven initiative petitions placed in front of voters between 1910 and 2022. Of those petitions, voters have approved 28 — 40.6 percent. Voters shot down the remaining proposed referendums. That data only analyzes the proposals that have reached the ballot — most petitions to amend the constitution fail to make it through the expensive and time-consuming signature-gathering process. For example, more than 80 initiative petitions were filed with the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office in 2022, but only one, marijuana legalization, reached the ballot. About 170,000 signatures are required to amend the state’s constitution. Remember, this is a time-consuming process and often costs millions of dollars. Those who gather signatures are often paid. The pay is low, and the work is often difficult, making it an unattractive option for many.
Amending the constitution has been used to pass progressive legislation in this Republican-leaning state. Examples include a bump in the minimum wage (2006), Medicaid expansion (2021), and the above-mentioned marijuana legalization (2022) Republicans are trying to fight semi-direct democracy in other Republican-leaning states like South Dakota and Ohio right now
Social democrats in Missouri and other states must fight against the trend of grabbing sovereignty away from the citizenry.
Patty Friend is the National Chair of SDUSA.