chapter 5 The ‘Third Way’ to

Bauer’s philosophical, economic, and sociological inquiries, which were cov- ered in Chapters 1–4, held crucial elements to the fundamental political tra- jectories of Austromarxism: peaceful social transformation and correspond- ing practical activities required of Austrian Social to democratise the capitalist order. The way in which Bauer approached matters of the state, including its different forms (democracy and ) and the state of the future, was entirely theoretical. It also drove Social-Democratic politics in the bourgeois state in a specific direction. The notion of a ‘third’ way to socialism only faded with ’s victory, preceded by a crisis of democracy. At the time, the Social-Democratic party’s struggle against fascist reaction became the cent- ral question. These issues form the subject matter of Chapters 5–8.

1 The Vision of Peaceful and Its Realisation

Perspectives and possibilities of , including the poten- tial for a revolution in Austria, and the relationship to the Russian Revolu- tion and Bolshevism preoccupied Bauer’s mind. Crucially, statements made by sdap leaders on possible ways of transformation from to social- ism were purely theoretical up until 1917, as were remarks on perspectives of socialist revolution. With the victory of the in and the wave in Europe, this became a practical, distinctly political, issue. That does not mean that the theoretical aspects of revolution – its form, the changing class content of the bourgeois state, and the speed of change – lost significance for Bauer. On the contrary, his views matured there and then. Non- etheless, potential roads to socialism and corresponding measures were not central during the period of social upheaval in Austria – the Austrian socialists had already elaborated these, which allowed Bauer to define ideological and theoretical solutions more closely. What instead became important were the Social-Democratic party’s perspective and strategy for the revolutionary situ- ation and for the event of a bourgeois counter-attack. Bauer’s overall concept of revolution was borne of theoretical reflections on the perspectives, conditions, aspects, forms and development mechanisms of socialist revolution. Equally tantamount was the question of allies: what social forces could potentially be won for socialism? A part of this complex situation

© ewa czerwińska-schupp, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/9789004325838_006 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc-by-nc License. the ‘third way’ to socialism 169 were tactical solutions based on analysis of the political and class balance in Austria and across Europe. The theory had its strong and weak points. Bauer’s assessment of socio-political conditions was certainly not without ideological considerations, and as a result, it not only bore many unconvincing elements, but also weakened the overall strategic line of the sdap. The strong point was Bauer’s emphasis on the socio-technical form, namely the method of seizing and maintaining power during the transitional period, mechanisms to win the middle classes over to proletarian revolution, and tools for transforming capitalist society. The fact that his theory proved ineffective under conditions of a modern bourgeois state, and the fact that it cannot be applied in today’s circumstances, do not diminish its .

1.1 Parliamentarism and the Revolution The vision of proletarian revolution in Bauer’s work was representative of the Marxist centre of the Second International and hugely popular outside Aus- tria, including in . Bauer had created the model of a parliamentary- democratic, peaceful road to socialism.1 Since the late nineteenth century, this revolutionary theory had become manifest in the European socialist move- ment to varying degrees, yet it took shape within Austromarxism and remains an important contribution to socialist theory to the present day. Crucially, the suggestion to use parliamentary institutions in the struggle for socialism derived from a specific theoretical and philosophical paradigm, the deterministic-economic conception of history.2 The anticipation of the inevitable collapse of capitalism justified the belief in the historical necessity of socialism and was easily reconciled with the reformist orientation of the workers’ parties. The vision of a gradual revolution – the working class tak- ing control of economic and political institutions by piecemeal – was a logical and natural consequence of the deterministic-economic conception of socio- historical processes. The fact that Renner and others relied heavily on this to back their theory of ‘growing into socialism’ and effectively supported the cap- italist order were further consequences of the historical philosophy adopted at the outset. It was based on Bernstein’s notion, popularised in the Austrian Social-Democratic movement, that any revolutionary seizure of power must

1 For the influence on Polish socialist thought – i.e. the views of Niedziałkowski, Perl, Czapiński, Próchnik, Dreszer, Lange and others, compare Jeliński 1994, pp. 130–56; Śliwa 1980, pp. 191–280; Czerwińska 435, pp. 418–35. 2 Note that the theory of peaceful revolution contradicts this paradigm on several questions, e.g. the evaluation of the role of politics in state economic affairs. This was often overlooked in discussions at the time.