# Social Democracy vs Democratic Socialism

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-democracy-vs-democratic-socialism/818626>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 26, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-democracy-vs-democratic-socialism/818626 "2018-07-26T17:09:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![drkstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@drkstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drkstar)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-democracy-vs-democratic-socialism/818626/1 "2018-07-26T17:09:40Z")

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Is there a substantial difference between the two? Are there any pure Democratic Socialist countries?

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**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-democracy-vs-democratic-socialism/818626/2 "2018-07-26T17:16:38Z")

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According to the Wikipedia article Democratic Socialism involves “actually” socialist policies such as the socialisation of “the means of production”. All currently Social Democracies are capitalist countries with more than average government ownership, regulation and social policies, but nowhere near, or working towards the elimination of privately owned businesses.