There is a strong push in the United States for Democratic Socialism, with Bernie Sanders as one of the idea's leading advocates. Democratic socialists have the lofty desire to end oppression and exploitation they see within our capitalist economy by giving all citizens equal share in the means of production, economic drivers, and income. Democratic Socialists of America
At first glance, it seemed to me a great idea, but as Friedrich A. Hayek points out in Road to Serfdom, there are multiple issues with the idea that democratic socialism can be attained without introducing authoritarianist policies.
First, I must ask how it is feasible for every citizen of the United States to have equal say in every socioeconomic issue? The problem to me is not about every citizen having a voice in every economic decision, but whether every citizen could feasibly agree on every single decision. Hayek points out that everyone would only really be able to agree on the "general welfare," and that everyone will not be able to agree on an overall plan or direction for the economy. After all, not every citizen of the working class will have the same end in mind.
Even if all citizens had a say in how the economic drivers that affect them should operate, would every citizen be interested in spending their time and effort to oversee all of this? Wouldn't most people rather delegate tasks that they do not wish to carry out themselves to the experts, since every working citizen has his/her own expertise to worry about? This desire to delegate the task of overseeing the economy as a whole, Hayek points out, is characteristic of countries that turn into dictatorships. It is, in fact, more appealing to have freedom from economic worries than to try and oversee every economic issue, and this is most effectively done by delegating the task of creating a scheme for the whole economy to a person or group that is given absolute economic power.
Socialism is in direct contradiction to the individual freedoms found in democracy, because, as Road to Serfdom has helped me to understand, socialism requires for all citizens to be placed under a single economic plan for the whole country to which only a small fraction of citizens could be in favor of. As Alexis de Tocqueville once masterfully said, "Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."