While Bernie Sanders says he wants "democratic socialism," what does that mean?, asks political science Prof. Victor Menaldo.
For Sanders he holds up Nordic states like Sweden as examples of successful democracies and a well funded welfare state. Prof. Menaldo reminds that Sweden is not a democratic socialist state but very capitalist.
Prof. Menaldo states that Sweden has a high standard of living but does it with a free market that is capitalist and a "social democracy" but uses the successful capitalist model to distribute assets alleviating poverty and still having a large middle class. Menaldo says Sanders cherry-picks the social spending side and ignores that it being done within a successful market economy.
According the Prof. Menaldo, Bernie Sanders has not been called on the reality of the social democracy examples he puts forth and "Americans of all stripes are not yet informed about the way in which countries such as Sweden have achieved greater prosperity and equality of opportunity and outcome."