Giving books away: World Book Night 2012

Last year a program got underway in the UK with a simple goal: to put books into the hands of those who want to read but don’t have easy access to reading material. The reasons might vary they can’t afford to buy books, don’t live near a library, can’t leave their homes. But in the end they are simply people who need books. This year World Book Night will take place in the U. S., the U. K., and Ireland on April 23 the UNESCO International Day of the Book.

Each country chooses its own list of books. In the U. S., the multi-layered selection process was basically made by independent booksellers and librarians. In the end, 25 books were chosen; each will have 40,000 special World Book Night editions printed, for a total of 1 million book giveaways by thousands of volunteers on April 23.

Social democracy

Social democracy is a political ideology of the left on the classic political spectrum. The contemporary social democratic movement seeks to reform capitalism to align it with the ethical ideals of social justice while maintaining the capitalist mode of production, as opposed to creating an alternative socialist economic system. Practical modern social democratic policies include the promotion of a welfare state, and the creation of economic democracy as a means to secure workers' rights.

Historically, social democracy was a form of evolutionary reformist socialism[2] that advocated the establishment of a socialist economy through class struggle. During the early 20th century, major European social democratic parties began to reject elements of Marxism, Revolutionary socialism and class struggle, taking a moderate position that socialism could be established through political reforms. The distinction between Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism had yet to fully develop at this time. The Frankfurt Declaration of the Socialist International in 1951, attended by many social democratic parties from across the world, committed adherents to oppose Bolshevik communism and Stalinism, and to promote a gradual transformation of capitalism into socialism.