2025-09-20
49 分钟The Economist.
It owes its origins to of all things, an industrialist, a Welsh one at that.
Robert Owen made his fortune in textile mills in Wales and Scotland.
But the export to the United States he's most credited with, well, today we call it socialism.
Owen moved to the United States and set up utopian colonies where people worked together instead of for themselves.
They didn't last long, but socialism has.
It's evolved, it's been pilloried, and to its supporters, it's been misunderstood.
And a Democratic socialist, much to the delight of Republicans,
is on the cusp of winning the mayor's race in America's most important city.
I'm John Prado and this is Checks and Balance from The Economist.
Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.
Today, what is socialism in America in 2025?
Bernie Sanders spurred support for the Democratic Socialists of America when he ran for president, but he's not even a member.
The party appears to be moderating some of its earlier positions. Why?
Is socialism, which has long underachieved in the United States, becoming more appealing to voters?
Joining me this week to talk about socialism in America are Charlotte Howard,
who's in New York, and James Bennett, who's in Washington D.C.
This is an episode we had planned to do last week, and then we changed subjects after Charlie Kirk was killed.
I think it's still really relevant and interesting to take a look at what is going on on the left wing of the Democratic Party,
perhaps particularly given that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and others have blamed the far left and a culture of violence on the far left