Democratic socialist mayors are testing how far city governments can go in expanding services, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges Professor Emeritus David Ost says New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has already changed public expectations.
Ost, a scholar of socialism and political movements, offered that assessment in a Los Angeles Times article by Jenny Jarvie reproduced by HWS in a Nov. 12 announcement. The report examines the accomplishments, compromises and constraints facing socialist mayors as Nithya Raman prepares to lead Los Angeles.
“His big accomplishment is he’s changed the mood,” Ost told the newspaper about Mamdani. “He’s expanded the idea of what government can and ought to do.”
Promises meet the limits of city government
The report describes a small but growing group of socialist city executives pursuing expanded housing, transit and child care while trying to demonstrate competence in basic services. Their agendas also face budget limits, legal challenges and opposition from businesses, wealthy residents and moderate Democrats.
Mamdani campaigned on free child care for children through age 5, fare-free city buses, a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments and city-owned grocery stores. His proposed financing included a 2% income tax increase for residents earning more than $1 million annually, a top corporate tax rate of 11.5% and a tax on luxury second homes.
According to the newspaper’s account, he secured a rent freeze affecting 2 million New Yorkers and worked with Gov. Kathy Hochul to obtain $1.2 billion in state funding for child care. The expansion included a program for 2-year-olds and additional preschool access for 3-year-olds, while falling short of his broader campaign goal.
Hochul opposed the proposed tax increases on corporations and high earners. The luxury second-home tax they advanced together was temporarily blocked by the courts and faced continuing legal challenges, the report said.
Fare-free buses require state approval. Instead, Mamdani worked with the City Council to expand half-price fares for low-income residents. His grocery-store plan also faced lawsuits from bodega owners and criticism over its potential effects on existing businesses before the first store opened.
The report also presents criticism that those accomplishments reflect conventional municipal government rather than socialism. John Mollenkopf, professor emeritus of political science and sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center, described Mamdani’s approach as emphasizing practical services rather than nationalizing major industries.
Seattle offers a different experience
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson campaigned on social housing, a proposed $1 billion affordable-housing bond, stronger renter protections, expanded transit, universal child care and 1,000 new shelter beds annually. She also proposed a local capital gains tax and more progressive property taxes.
The newspaper reported that Wilson opened some tiny-home communities and took steps to improve bus service, but cut her shelter-bed goal in half through 2027. She had not advanced the housing bond or progressive taxation proposals and presented a balanced budget proposing nearly $50 million in cuts, no new taxes and $68 million more for police.
Patrick Schoettmer, a Seattle University political science professor, told the newspaper that the contrast shows how much depends on the political environment surrounding a mayor. Mamdani benefited from a supportive council and socialist organizing base, while Wilson faced a more moderate council and criticism from the left.
Wilson describes herself as a socialist but ran without the endorsement of Seattle’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter. The chapter accused her of betraying voters after the city conducted homeless-encampment sweeps shortly after she took office, according to the report.
Housing and practical results become central tests
The debate has historical precedents. The article traces socialist city government to John Chase in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1899 and to Milwaukee’s socialist mayors between 1910 and 1960, whose emphasis on public infrastructure became known as sewer socialism.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
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Explore this topic →Mollenkopf argued that the typical Mamdani voter favored a regulated capitalist economy more than replacing capitalism with public or worker ownership. Bhaskar Sunkara, Jacobin’s founding editor, argued that competent government can deliver fairer services while providing stability.
Sunkara also said socialist mayors must compromise and give businesses confidence to invest. He described faster housing approvals and private construction as compatible with public housing, affordability requirements and rent regulation.
Those approaches face disagreements within the socialist movement over pragmatism, ideology and whether to pursue power through the Democratic Party, outside it or through elections at all. Budget pressure, public-sector labor negotiations and resistance to additional taxes present further challenges.
Housing will be a central test, the experts told the newspaper, as advocates of city-owned affordable homes and supporters of fewer restrictions on private developers compete over how to increase supply. Mollenkopf also cautioned that a recession could force difficult spending decisions even where strong finances initially allowed expanded services.
Ost’s scholarship spans socialism and political change
Ost joined the HWS faculty in 1986. His comparative-politics scholarship examines socialism, democracy, labor movements, political economy and the rise of the radical right, with extensive work on political change in Eastern Europe, particularly Poland.
His books include The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe. His writing has appeared in academic journals, The Nation and Dissent, and his HWS courses have included “What Is Socialism?” and “Radical Politics from Karl Marx to Donald Trump.”
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