What is a Democratic socialist? By Susan Arbetter City of Buffalo PUBLISHED 5:30 PM ET Jul. 07, 2021 PUBLISHED 5:30 PM EDT Jul. 07, 2021 SHARE You may have heard that Buffalo mayoral primary election winner India Walton is a Democratic socialist. What will that mean for the people of Buffalo should she defeat Byron Brown in the general election? Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University, spoke with Capital Tonight about the meaning of the term, how it differs from both American socialism of the 1930s, and Russian communism. “Socialism is a big term, just like liberalism and conservativism,” Berman explained. “Socialists in the U.S. have been a relatively small faction. Democratic socialists want to see more government spending and more public interventions. They are fighting to move the Democratic Party to the left.”