What are the Merits of Social Democracy?

[indya]

What are the Merits of Social Democracy? It has been argued that social democracy is as bad or worse than democracy without bits of socialism because it gives the prol a smaller incentive to revolt, but what are the arguments for SD?
(I guess this may be the wrong question to ask on REVleft)

[Sosa]

It can be worse in some ways, like appeasing the masses to keep them from revolting. It has some good, like alleviating some of the symptoms of capitalism. For example a social democracy state that has universal healthcare for its citizens is better than say the U.S. model where there are private insurance companies and thousands die each year because they cant access quality healthcare. So thats one good point. But it has the nasty side effect of making people apathetic and the truth is that the system is still tied to capitalism, so it can be taken away or the quality can be reduced. Its not something permanent like say in a communist system.

[ed miliband]

This is like asking whether the dodo would be a good bird to have as a pet; social democracy is dead, its "merits" meaningless.

I guess those who support it would say that it's good because it provides some sort of safety net while retaining the incentive for competition and creativity that is apparently fundamental to capitalism. In fact, that's exactly what they'd say.