Sunday, September 13, 2009
Who loves Eduard Bernstein...I do!
The article on German Social Democracy was by far my favorite yet in this class. The attempted reconciliation of the trade unions and the Social Democratic Party was flawlessly weaved together for a compelling historical story. My favorite part of the essay was Eduard Bernsetein's contribution to the Social Democrats dilemma on reconciling the contemporary economic landscape of the 1890's with their tenants of Marxism. His revisionist history sought to dismantle those very tenants and I thought was accomplished very well, though the Party ultimately went another route. This is probably because instead of reconciling the two, if his theory was accepted, would have completely eliminated Marxism as one of their priciples. However, Bernstein did well in his theory to present a encompassing revision on Marxism that followed the new Social Democratic principle that any immediate revolution was impossible. However, Bernstein's theory would have had longterm implications in completely seperating Marxism form the Party. Continuing on with Bernstein's revision, one of his attacks was on the fundamental Marxist tenant stating that out of capitalism comes anarchy. Bernstein used the recent history of the economy to show that in fact, for the past two decades, no major crisis had occured as capitalism continued to grow and allow for prosperity. Real wages were even increasing during the 1890's. Bernstein proposed that capitalism actually led to order, not anarchy. This in turn ruled out any crisis from occuring in the future and thus a complete separation from Marxism would have to occur. He ultimately discovered that socialism is not a necessity resulting from capitalist development. Socialism instead would have to be a result of the will of the people and thus a chosen philosophy instead of a necessity of governing dynamics from the downfall of capitalism as Marxism holds. The theory continues to state that all the classes could indulge in this will, which again breaks with Marxism as the overthrow by the proletariat was a necassary action to move forth in a new economy built upon the bases of socialism. For me, I love this theory. Bernstein's revision was relevant to the times and completely undermined the tenants of Marxism, which I love that accomplishment even more. However, it is clear to see why the Social Democratic Party could not go this way as acceptance of this theory would have completely seperated the Party with its established base of Marxist theory.
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I'm glad you liked the reading. I find Berstein's position so interesting because he is essentially developing a theory that fit the facts as they existed in his time. Marxism seemed to have been proven false through the ability of capitalism to adjust to crises and to stabilize itself in ways unpredicted by Marx. In reality, the German SPD was a reformist party but one that clung to its revolutionary rhetoric, perhaps to its own detriment since such glorfication of revolution certainly deprived it of alliances with bourgeois parties. If you are interested in Bernstein, you might want to check out Peter Gay's The Dilemma of Democratic Socialism which talks more about Bernstein's challenge to the SPD.
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