Otto Bauer (1881–1938)
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Otto Bauer (1881–1938) Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access Historical Materialism Book Series Editorial Board Sébastien Budgen (Paris) David Broder (Rome) Steve Edwards (London) Juan Grigera (London) Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam) Peter Thomas (London) volume 121 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access Otto Bauer in 1931 Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access Otto Bauer (1881–1938) Thinker and Politician By Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp Translated by Maciej Żurowski leiden | boston Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the cc-by-nc License, which permits any non-commercial use, and distribution, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Published with the support of Austrian Science Fund (fwf) First published in German by Peter Lang as Otto Bauer: Studien zur social-politischen Philosophie. © by Peter Lang GmbH. Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Frankfurt am Main, 2005. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Czerwinska-Schupp, Ewa, author. Title: Otto Bauer (1881-1938) : thinker and politician / by Ewa Czerwinska-Schupp ; translated by Maciej Zurowski. Other titles: Otto Bauer. English Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2016] | Series: Historical materialism book series, issn 1570-1522 ; volume 121 | “First published in German by Peter Lang as Otto Bauer: Studien zur social-politischen Philosophie, Frankfurt, 2005.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2016031159 (print) | lccn 2016045169 (ebook) | isbn 9789004315730 (hardback : alk. paper) | isbn 9789004325838 (e-book) Subjects: lcsh: Bauer, Otto, 1881-1938. | Socialism–Austria–History. | Austro-Marxist school–History. | Socialism–Philosophy. Classification: lcc HX254 .O7613 2016 (print) | lcc HX254 (ebook) | ddc 320.53/15–dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031159 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1570-1522 isbn 978-90-04-31573-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-32583-8 (e-book) Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. This work is published by Koninklijke Brill nv. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. Koninklijke Brill nv reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill nv. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access † To my late husband, Walter Schupp, for everything that has been, and still is beautiful in my life. ∵ Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access Contents Introduction to the English Edition xiii Foreword xxv Prof. Norbert Leser Acknowledgements xxxiii Illustrations xxxv 1 Otto Bauer and His Time 1 2 The Materialist View of History 45 1 Scientistic Marxism 45 2 Historiosophical Reflections 63 3 Marxism and Ethics 73 3 A Contribution to the Theory of Imperialism 86 1 Imperialism as a Necessary Stage of Capitalism 89 2 The Socio-Political Context of Bauer’s Observations on Imperialism 97 3 The Question of Crises in the Capitalist Economy 102 3.1 Conjunctural Crisis and the Theory of Overcoming Crises 103 3.2 Structural Crisis and Ways of Overcoming It 110 3.3 Rationalisation Crisis 113 4 Socialism and the Theory of ‘Organised Capitalism’ 114 4 The National Question 118 1 The Nation and National Culture 118 1.1 The Essence of the National Character 120 1.2 The Peculiar Quality of National Consciousness 123 1.3 Thinking in the Categories of National Values 126 1.4 Cultural and Natural Community 128 1.5 The Determinants of Modern Nation-Forming 134 1.6 The Nation as a Real Community of Culture in a Future State 138 2 The Nationalities Question in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 141 2.1 Social Democracy and the National Question 145 2.2 Bauer’s Position on the So-Called Nationalities Question 150 2.2.1 Position on National Conflicts 150 2.2.2 The Programme of National-Cultural Autonomy 153 2.2.3 Remarks on National Assimilation 159 2.3 The Programme of the Left and the Demise of the Monarchy 162 Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access x contents 5 The ‘Third Way’ to Socialism 168 1 The Vision of Peaceful Revolution and Its Realisation 168 1.1 Parliamentarism and the Revolution 169 1.2 Practice in the Service of Theory 181 2 The Theory of Social Upheaval During the Post-Revolutionary Period 194 2.1 The Programme of Linz 194 2.2 ‘Integral Socialism’ 201 3 The Question of Revolutionary Allies for the Working Class 205 3.1 The Socialisation Programme 207 3.2 The Agrarian Programme 218 4 The Gradual Development of Attitudes toward Revolution and Bolshevik Practice 226 4.1 The Doctrinaire Perspective: Chances of Socialist Revolution in Russia 228 4.2 A Doctrinaire-Pragmatic Perspective: The New Economic Policy 235 4.3 A Pragmatic Perspective: Stalinism 238 6 State, Democracy, Socialism 246 1 The State as ‘Balance’ of Class Power 248 2 Parliamentary and Social Democracy 253 3 Democratic Socialism 263 4 Coalition Work 268 7 The Question of War in Bauer’s Thought in Light of sdap and lsi Policies 277 1 The sdap Position until the Outbreak of World War i 277 2 Bauer’s Opposition to the sdap Position on World War i 283 3 Bauer on a Future Armed World Conflict: Fears, Hopes, and Plans 288 8 The Spectre of Fascism 295 1 Harbingers of Fascism 295 2 Bauer’s Theory of Fascism 302 2.1 Fascism Theory Based on the Notion of Bonapartism 306 2.2 Austrofascism as a Special Sub-Variety of Fascism 316 2.3 The Theory of Fascism as Imperialism 323 3 The Anti-Fascist Uprising of Austrian Workers 327 4 Austrian Social Democracy and the Triumph of Fascism 333 Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access contents xi 4.1 Austrian Social Democracy’s Relationship to Strategic and Tactical Concepts of the Workers’ Movement During the Period of Fascist Reaction 333 4.2 Oppositional Activity of the Social-Democratic Movement at Home and in Exile after the sdap Ban 338 Closing Remarks 351 References 357 Index 384 Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access Ewa Czerwińska-Schupp - 9789004325838 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:39:48PM via free access Introduction to the English Edition Let us for a moment go back to the history of the 1960s and 1970s leftist social movement. Those years revealed a profound crisis of ideological and political values – a crisis that deeply affected the exponents of West European radical Social-Democratic groups, liberalising Eurocommunist factions of the Com- munist movement, and European and American leftist intellectuals. It found expression in the growing strength of various endeavours: First, critiques of the programmatic line of Social-Democratic Parties – such as their eclecticism, ideology of the ‘people’s party’, lack of revolutionary theory, and state mono- poly capitalism – and demands for structural reforms towards internal party democracy.1 Second, the Eurocommunists’ attempt to adjust socialist ideology to the needs of the modern industrial state.2 Third, the appearance of intel- lectuals and groups of radical youth under the banner of the ‘new left’, casting doubt over the theoretical, methodological, and ideological value of Marxism and its practical consequences, such as the principles of party organisation and forming alliances. These movements demanded the transformation of societies through their ideological and cultural realms.3 1 See juso-jahrbuch1968–69, Bonn 1970, p. 41, and HandbuchfürdieJungsozialistenarbeit, Bonn 1971, p. iii/1. 2 The expression ‘Eurocommunism’ was first used by the Yugoslavian journalist, France Bar- bieri, in 1975, and shortly after by the Italian journalist, Arrigo Levi, and by the Catholic philosopher, Augusto Del Noche. The Italian, Spanish, French, Swedish, British, and Greek Communist parties were eventually dominated by the Eurocommunist trend, as were – not entirely logically due to their geographical locations – the Japanese and Australian Commun- ist parties. The tendency, whose adherents were ideologically rather than organisationally linked, was characterised by its open approach towards Marxism and other ideological ori- entations, its critical attitude towards the Soviet model of socialism and the Leninist party concept, its demand for autonomy and equality of Communist parties, and its postulates for a democratic path to socialism and a pluralist-democratic model of socialism in economy and politics. Compare Leonhard 1980. 3 Originally, the ‘new left’ represented an intellectual current. It emerged at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s mainly among academics (philosophers, sociologists, and economists), publicists, and writers drawing on neo-Marxism, existentialism, and social psychoanalysis. Under the influence of the student protests and French ‘gauchism’ of 1968, it transformed into a political movement. Representatives of the ‘new left’ included, among others, C.