（写在前面：这是DSA的FAQ，适合初学者了解社会主义）
Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives.
民主社会主义者们认为经济和社会都应该以民主方式运作——用来满足公众需求，而不是为少数人攫取利润。 为了建立一个更公正的社会，我们的政府和经济的许多结构必须通过实现更大的经济和社会民主来彻底改变，以便普通美国人能够参与影响我们生活的许多决策。
Democracy and socialism go hand in hand. All over the world, wherever the idea of democracy has taken root, the vision of socialism has taken root as well—everywhere but in the United States. Because of this, many false ideas about socialism have developed in the US.
民主与社会主义手拉手共同前进。 在世界各地，无论民主的概念扎根于何处，社会主义的愿景也已经扎根于世界各地——除了美国（实际上中国比美国的情况糟糕得多，当然DSA也许把范围限定在了民主国家）。 正因为如此，许多关于社会主义的错误观念在美国得到了发展。
Doesn’t socialism mean that the government will own and run everything?
社会主义不是意味着政府会拥有和运作一切吗？
Democratic socialists do not want to create an all-powerful government bureaucracy. But we do not want big corporate bureaucracies to control our society either. Rather, we believe that social and economic decisions should be made by those whom they most affect.
民主党社会主义者们并不想建立一个全能的政府官僚机构。 但我们同样也不希望大企业官僚机构控制我们的社会。 相反，我们认为社会和经济决策应由受其影响最大的人做出。
Today, corporate executives who answer only to themselves and a few wealthy stockholders make basic economic decisions affecting millions of people. Resources are used to make money for capitalists rather than to meet human needs. We believe that the workers and consumers who are affected by economic institutions should own and control them.
如今，只对自己负责的企业高管和少数富有的股东做出了影响数百万人的基本经济决策。 资源用于为资本家们赚钱而不是满足人类需求。 我们认为受经济机构影响的工人们和消费者们应该拥有和控制这些经济机构。
Social ownership could take many forms, such as worker-owned cooperatives or publicly owned enterprises managed by workers and consumer representatives. Democratic socialists favor as much decentralization as possible. While the large concentrations of capital in industries such as energy and steel may necessitate some form of state ownership, many consumer-goods industries might be best run as cooperatives.
社会所有权可以采取多种形式，例如工人所有的合作企业或由工人和消费者代表共同管理的公有企业。 民主社会主义者赞成尽可能多的去中心化。虽然能源和钢铁等行业的大型资本可能需要某种形式的国家所有，但许多消费品行业可能最适合的形式是合作企业。
Democratic socialists have long rejected the belief that the whole economy should be centrally planned. While we believe that democratic planning can shape major social investments like mass transit, housing, and energy, market mechanisms are needed to determine the demand for many consumer goods.
民主社会主义者长期以来一直拒绝相信整个经济应该被中央计划。虽然我们认为民主计划可以塑造公共交通，住房和能源等重大社会投资，但需要市场机制来确定对许多消费品的需求。
Hasn’t socialism been discredited by the collapse of Communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe?
难道社会主义不是已经被苏联和东欧的共产主义的崩溃证明是不可信的吗？
Socialists have been among the harshest critics of authoritarian Communist states. Just because their bureaucratic elites called them “socialist” did not make it so; they also called their regimes “democratic.” Democratic socialists always opposed the ruling party-states of those societies, just as we oppose the ruling classes of capitalist societies. We applaud the democratic revolutions that have transformed the former Communist bloc. However, the improvement of people’s lives requires real democracy without ethnic rivalries and/or new forms of authoritarianism. Democratic socialists will continue to play a key role in that struggle throughout the world.
社会主义者们一直是对威权共产主义国家最严厉的批评者之一。 仅仅因为他们的官僚精英称他们为“社会主义的”并不能证明他们的确是社会主义; 他们还称他们的政权是“民主的”。民主社会主义者总是反对这些社会的执政党，正如我们反对资本主义社会的统治阶级一样。我们赞扬改变前共产主义集团的民主革命。然而，改善人民生活需要没有种族对抗和/或新形式的威权主义的真正的民主。民主社会主义者们将继续在全世界的斗争中发挥关键作用。
Moreover, the fall of Communism should not blind us to injustices at home. We cannot allow all radicalism to be dismissed as “Communist.” That suppression of dissent and diversity undermines America’s ability to live up to its promise of equality of opportunity, not to mention the freedoms of speech and assembly.
而且，共产主义的垮台不应该使我们无视国内的不公正。 我们不能让所有的激进主义都被贬低成“共产主义者”。压制异议和多样性会毁灭美国实现机会平等这一承诺的能力，更不用说言论和集会自由。
Private corporations seem to be a permanent fixture in the US, so why work towards socialism?
私人公司看起来被永久固定在美国了，所以为什么为迈向社会主义而努力呢？
In the short term we can’t eliminate private corporations, but we can bring them under greater democratic control. The government could use regulations and tax incentives to encourage companies to act in the public interest and outlaw destructive activities such as exporting jobs to low-wage countries and polluting our environment. Public pressure can also have a critical role to play in the struggle to hold corporations accountable. Most of all, socialists look to unions to make private business more accountable.
在短期内我们的确无法终结私人公司，但我们可以将它们置于更有效的民主控制之下。政府可以使用管制和税收激励措施来激励公司为公共利益行事，并禁止破坏性活动，例如向低工资国家出口工作和污染环境。公共压力也可以在使企业承担责任的斗争中发挥关键作用。最重要的是，社会主义者们通过工会使私营企业变得更负责任。
Won’t socialism be impractical because people will lose their incentive to work?
社会主义不会因为人们会失去工作的诱因而变得不实际吗？
We don’t agree with the capitalist assumption that starvation or greed are the only reasons people work. People enjoy their work if it is meaningful and enhances their lives. They work out of a sense of responsibility to their community and society. Although a long-term goal of socialism is to eliminate all but the most enjoyable kinds of labor, we recognize that unappealing jobs will long remain. These tasks would be spread among as many people as possible rather than distributed on the basis of class, race, ethnicity, or gender, as they are under capitalism. And this undesirable work should be among the best, not the least, rewarded work within the economy. For now, the burden should be placed on the employer to make work desirable by raising wages, offering benefits and improving the work environment. In short, we believe that a combination of social, economic, and moral incentives will motivate people to work.
我们不同意资本主义的假设：饥饿或贪婪是人们工作的唯一原因。 如果工作有意义并且改善人们的生活，那么人们就会喜欢工作。他们在对社区和社会的责任感的驱动下工作。虽然社会主义的长期目标是消除除了最令人愉快的劳动之外的所有劳动，但我们也意识到没有吸引力的工作将长期存在。 这些工作将分散在尽可能多的人中，而不是在阶级，种族，民族或性别的基础上分配，就像它们处于资本主义之下的时候。这种没有吸引力的工作应该是受到最好的而不是最少的经济支撑的工作。目前，应该通过提高工资，提供福利和改善工作环境来减轻雇主的负担。简而言之，我们认为社会，经济和道德激励的结合将鼓动人们工作。
Why are there no models of democratic socialism?
为什么没有成为现实的民主社会主义模式？
Although no country has fully instituted democratic socialism, the socialist parties and labor movements of other countries have won many victories for their people. We can learn from the comprehensive welfare state maintained by the Swedes, from Canada’s national health care system, France’s nationwide childcare program, and Nicaragua’s literacy programs. Lastly, we can learn from efforts initiated right here in the US, such as the community health centers created by the government in the 1960s. They provided high quality family care, with community involvement in decision-making.
虽然没有一个国家完全建立了民主社会主义，但其他国家的社会主义政党和工人运动却为其人民赢得了许多胜利。 我们可以从瑞典人维护的综合福利国家，加拿大的国家医疗保障系统，法国的全国儿童照料计划以及尼加拉瓜的扫盲计划中学习。 最后，我们可以从在美国发起的努力中学习，例如政府在20世纪60年代创建的社区卫生中心。 他们提供高质量的家庭护理，而社区参与决策。
But hasn’t the European Social Democratic experiment failed?
但欧洲的社会民主实验不是失败了吗？
Many northern European countries enjoy tremendous prosperity and relative economic equality thanks to the policies pursued by social democratic parties. These nations used their relative wealth to insure a high standard of living for their citizens—high wages, health care and subsidized education. Most importantly, social democratic parties supported strong labor movements that became central players in economic decision-making. But with the globalization of capitalism, the old social democratic model becomes ever harder to maintain. Stiff competition from low-wage labor markets in developing countries and the constant fear that industry will move to avoid taxes and strong labor regulations has diminished (but not eliminated) the ability of nations to launch ambitious economic reform on their own. Social democratic reform must now happen at the international level. Multinational corporations must be brought under democratic controls, and workers’ organizing efforts must reach across borders.
由于社会民主党所施行的政策，许多北欧国家享有巨大的繁荣和相对的经济平等。这些国家利用其相对财富来确保公民的高生活水平—高工资，医疗保障和教育补贴。最重要的是，社会民主党支持强大的劳工运动，成为经济决策的核心参与者。但随着资本主义的全球化，旧的社会民主模式变得越来越难以维持。来自发展中国家的低工资劳动力市场的激烈竞争以及对于工厂将采取措施避免税收和强有力的劳动法规的持续担忧削弱了（但并没有消除）各国自行实施有野心的经济改革的能力。社会民主改革现在必须在国际级别上进行。跨国公司必须受到民主控制，而工人的组织工作也必须跨越国界。
Now, more than ever, socialism is an international movement. As socialists have always known, the welfare of working people in Finland or California depends largely on standards in Italy or Indonesia. As a result, we must work towards reforms that can withstand the power of multinationals and global banks, and we must fight for a world order that is not controlled by bankers and bosses.
现在，社会主义比以往任何时候都更加国际化。 正如社会主义者们所知道的，芬兰或加利福尼亚的劳动者们的福利在很大程度上取决于意大利或印度尼西亚的标准。 因此，我们必须努力进行能够抵御跨国公司和全球银行力量的改革，我们必须为一个不受银行家和老板们控制的世界秩序而战。
Aren’t you a party that’s in competition with the Democratic Party for votes and support?
你们不是一个正在和民主党竞争选票和支持的政党吗？
No, we are not a separate party. Like our friends and allies in the feminist, labor, civil rights, religious, and community organizing movements, many of us have been active in the Democratic Party. We work with those movements to strengthen the party’s left wing, represented by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
不，我们不是一个单独的政党。 像我们在女权主义者，劳工，民权，宗教和社区组织运动中的朋友和盟友一样，我们许多人一直活跃在民主党中。 我们与这些运动合作，增强党的左翼，由国会进步核心小组代表。
The process and structure of American elections seriously hurts third party efforts. Winner-take-all elections instead of proportional representation, rigorous party qualification requirements that vary from state to state, a presidential instead of a parliamentary system, and the two-party monopoly on political power have doomed third party efforts. We hope that at some point in the future, in coalition with our allies, an alternative national party will be viable. For now, we will continue to support progressives who have a real chance at winning elections, which usually means left-wing Democrats.
美国选举制度的进程和结构严重损害了第三政党的努力。 赢者通吃而不是比例代表制，严格的要求因州而异的政党资格，总统制而不是议会制，以及两党对政治权力的垄断毁灭了第三政党的努力。 我们希望在未来的某个时刻，在与盟友的联盟中，另一个国家级别的政党将是可行的。目前，我们将继续支持有真正有机会赢得选举的进步人士，这通常意味着左翼民主党人。
If I am going to devote time to politics, why shouldn’t I focus on something more immediate?
如果我要将时间花费在政治上，那么为什么不聚焦于一些更直接的事呢？
Although capitalism will be with us for a long time, reforms we win now—raising the minimum wage, securing a national health plan, and demanding passage of right-to-strike legislation—can bring us closer to socialism. Many democratic socialists actively work in the single-issue organizations that advocate for those reforms. We are visible in the reproductive freedom movement, the fight for student aid, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations, anti-racist groups, and the labor movement.
虽然资本主义将长期与我们共存，但我们现在赢得的改革—提高最低工资，确保一个国家健康计划，以及要求通过支持罢工的立法—可以使我们更接近社会主义。 许多民主社会主义者积极参与倡导这些改革的单一议题组织。我们在生育自由运动（堕胎自由是生育自由的关键），争取对学生的资助，男同性恋，女同性恋，双性恋和跨性别者组织，反种族主义团体和劳工运动中都可以被看见。
It is precisely our socialist vision that informs and inspires our day-to-day activism for social justice. As socialists we bring a sense of the interdependence of all struggles for justice. No single-issue organization can truly challenge the capitalist system or adequately secure its particular demands. In fact, unless we are all collectively working to win a world without oppression, each fight for reforms will be disconnected, maybe even self-defeating.
正是我们的社会主义愿景为我们日常的争取社会正义的活动提供了信息和启发。作为社会主义者我们带来了所有争取正义的斗争的相互依存感。任何单一议题组织都不能真正挑战资本主义制度或充分保障其特定需求。 事实上，除非我们团结起来共同努力赢得一个没有压迫的世界，否则每一场改革斗争都会是相互没有联系的，甚至可能会自己打败自己。
What can young people do to move the US towards socialism?
年轻人能做些什么以使美国迈向社会主义呢？
Since the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s, young people have played a critical role in American politics. They have been a tremendous force for both political and cultural change in this country: in limiting the US’s options in the war in Vietnam, in forcing corporations to divest from the racist South African regime, in reforming universities, and in bringing issues of sexual orientation and gender discrimination to public attention. Though none of these struggles were fought by young people alone, they all featured youth as leaders in multi-generational progressive coalitions. Young people are needed in today’s struggles as well: for universal health care and stronger unions, against welfare cuts and predatory multinational corporations.
自20世纪50年代的民权运动以来，年轻人在美国政治中发挥了关键作用。 年轻人是这个国家政治和文化变革的巨大力量：限制美国在越南战争中的选择，迫使企业撤离种族主义的南非政权，改革大学，以及使性取向和性别歧视问题得到公众关注。尽管这些斗争中没有一个是由年轻人独自进行的，但他们都将青年作为多代进步联盟的领导者。 在今天的斗争中也需要年轻人：全民医疗保障和强大的工会，反对福利削减和掠夺性的跨国公司。
Schools, colleges and universities are important to American political culture. They are the places where ideas are formulated and policy discussed and developed. Being an active part of that discussion is a critical job for young socialists. We have to work hard to change people’s misconceptions about socialism, to broaden political debate, and to overcome many students’ lack of interest in engaging in political action. Off-campus, too, in our daily cultural lives, young people can be turning the tide against racism, sexism and homophobia, as well as the conservative myth of the virtue of “free” markets.
学校，学院和大学对美国的政治文化来说很重要。 他们是观点被创造和政策被讨论和发展的地方。积极参与讨论是年轻社会主义者的一项重要工作。我们必须努力改变人们对社会主义的误解，扩展政治辩论，并克服许多学生缺乏参与政治行动的兴趣的缺点。在校外，在我们的日常文化生活中，年轻人可以扭转种族主义，性别歧视和同性恋恐惧症的潮流，以及反对保守主义的“自由”市场美德神话。
If so many people misunderstand socialism, why continue to use the word?
既然这么多人都误解了社会主义，那么为什么还继续用这词？
First, we call ourselves socialists because we are proud of what we are. Second, no matter what we call ourselves, conservatives will use it against us. Anti-socialism has been repeatedly used to attack reforms that shift power to working class people and away from corporate capital. In 1993, national health insurance was attacked as “socialized medicine” and defeated. Liberals are routinely denounced as socialists in order to discredit reform. Until we face, and beat, the stigma attached to the “S word,” politics in America will continue to be stifled and our options limited. We also call ourselves socialists because we are proud of the traditions upon which we are based, of the heritage of the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas, and of other struggles for change that have made America more democratic and just. Finally, we call ourselves socialists to remind everyone that we have a vision of a better world.
首先，我们称自己为社会主义者是因为我们为自己是什么而感到自豪。其次，无论我们称自己为什么，保守主义者都会用它来对付我们。 反社会主义一再被用来攻击将权力转移给工人阶级并且远离企业资本的改革。 1993年，国家健康保险被攻击为“社会化医疗”而失败。 自由主义者经常被谴责为社会主义者，以诋毁改革。 在我们面对并击败“S词”所带来的耻辱之前，美国的政治将继续被扼杀，我们的选择也会继续受到限制。我们也因为我们为我们所依据的传统，Eugene Debs和Norman Thomas的社会主义党遗产以及其他使美国更加民主和公正的变革斗争感到自豪而称我们自己为社会主义者。最后，我们称自己为社会主义者是为了提醒所有人我们有一个更好的世界的愿景。
What is Democratic Socialism?
