"Name a single country where socialism has worked."
Since I realized I wanted to explore and eventually hold a belief in socialism, I have gotten bolder in calling myself one. Usually in casual political conversations, maybe after someone calls like...Nancy Pelosi a Marxist or communist, or maybe just in a statement of support for the UAW presence in my workplace. Most people who don't agree or have sympathy for the position hit me with this question.
"Name a single country where socialism EVER worked."
The question, unfortunately, often puts you on the back heel. There are, of course, countries that were nominally socialist that failed; the USSR is a massive example. You either hear horror stories of collapsing economies or murderous dictatorships, or you hear stories of collapsing economies WITH murderous dictatorships. The basic narrative around socialism that grows in the mind of most Americans is that it fails and/or devolves into totalitarianism.
As a rhetorically argumentative question, "name a single countery where socialism ever worked" is effective exactly because it relies on this basic narrative and forces the person fielding the question to have to frantically begin trying to define what terms like "socialism", "a socialist country" or "worked" even mean, or sputter out something about China so they can be peppered with questions about human rights abuses.
It is not a question I struggle with because it has not inspired any doubt in me; I can define the terms, however it is a question I struggle to answer in these spur-of-the-moment conversations.
That is, until I finished John Nichols' book The S Word. From now on, the answer to "Name a single country where socialism actually worked" is simply "the United States of America".
Nichols' history of socialism in the United States is one of a deeply successful movement despite never holding power in a way one traditionally might think about. There has never been a socialist president, for example, but Nichols reveals influential, self-identified socialists in the administrations of Lincoln, Johnson, and even Woodrow Wilson.
By exploring the United States' socialist journey, we discover a practice not devolving into dictatorship but rather standing in opposition to the most evil and undemocratic institutions in the nation's history. A movement pushing policies that need to be expanded, but have provided a shared wealth and public expenditure system that has become foundational to our country.
The S Word makes the argument that Socialism should not be a bad word in America. Each chapter flows through the history of our country, centering on socialists' standing for and building our greatest institutions and pillars of human rights. Thomas Paine and other socialists influenced the end of monarchy, the most fervent anti-slavery activists and writers who brought about abolition were socialists, the sewer socialists who wrote the blueprint for effective municipal government, socialists who wrote our welfare state (to the extent it exists) into existence, A. Philip Randolph (avowed socialist) and the civil rights movement...the book is rather expansive.
Obviously, I had heard of and was a big fan of folks like Eugene V Debs, who I was expecting the book to be about primarily. Debs was certainly present throughout Nichols' work, but he never got a standalone chapter. Instead, I found myself more acquainted with socialists I'd never heard of, folks like Christian socialist Francis Bellamy, who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, or the socialist mayor of Milwaukee, Frank Zeidler.
It was the chapter about Zeidler and the Milwaukee "Sewer Socialists" that intrigued me the most. Especially reading it in the wake of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani's victory to become New York City's mayor. "I was elected as a socialist, and I will govern as a socialist," Mamdani said in his victory speech. The history of Frank Zeidler not only illuminates what that means, but is itself a rich history of Socialism working in the United States. Sewer socialism laid the groundwork for effective municipal governance, building highly effective and beloved public services and institutions. Across US cities, it's anything from running fire departments to opening public pools to making the buses run on time. Wonders of public transportation or education or even just water works - thank a socialist.
To be honest, I found myself wishing that Nichols spent more time on chapters like this, the actual socialist policies that made a difference in people's lives. A good portion of the book focuses on either socialists driven to defend human rights because of their beliefs, OR liberals who were so impacted by socialists that they took more radical approaches to the human rights crises of their time. This is obviously very important and impacted people's lives in meaningful ways, but Nichols wasn't specific enough when it came to calling out the actual structure of ownership (capitalistic or social) that was driving these crises in the first place.
When people ask you to name a country where socialism has ever worked, you can say the United States, because state/public-owned institutions have and continue to work. We have universal k-12 education, we maintain complicated systems of mail delivery and vehicle registration and licensing, and we have near universal access to potable water, electricity, and internet. We have Universities and weather facilities that do life-changing research. The United States government is the country's largest employer. This is socialism "working" every day. While we have our share of human rights abuses, it's generally in the service of private property.
The argument will, of course, shift. Rather than "name a country where socialism has ever worked", you'll hear "name a socialist country that worked." The goal posts will move; one can't define the US as entirely socialist (or any country for that matter, nor can you call any country entirely capitalist). But Nichols' book still helps; socialism is not a bad word. By identifying as one and believing in the propensity for socialist institutions to work, you are connecting to a rich history of abolitionists, free speech warriors, labor union activists, the people who ended child labor and won social security. We're not the ones who should be afraid of "the S-Word"; they are.
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