The promise of democratic socialism is not simply greater equality, but greater freedom. Its goal is to give all people the ability to truly shape their own lives. That’s what Zohran Mamdani’s platform represents. His policies, such as a rent freeze, fare-free buses and universal childcare, are not merely economic measures; they are instruments of real freedom for ordinary people. When most of one’s paycheque disappears into rent, freedom is constrained. Housing stability helps people feel secure, make long-term plans, and avoid the stress of potential eviction.
Housing stability is tied to human dignity. Fare-free public transit extends the freedom of mobility across the city. Free buses make mobility a right, not a privilege, and open up the physical and social space of freedom itself. And universal childcare liberates parents, especially women, from an impossible trade-off between childcare and participation in society. When the burden of childcare is shared by society, everyone gains the freedom to work, study, and engage in public life on equal terms. These policies redefine freedom not as the privilege of the few to accumulate without limit, but as the shared capacity of all to live with security, opportunity, and power over their own lives. That is the freedom democracy promises, and the one democratic socialism delivers.
Read the rest of Mohaved's opinion piece in Al Jazeera.