Page - XXIX - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

foreword xxix deconstructtheirbase:hishistoricaldeterminismandcorrespondingperspect- iveofcollapse.HeidentifiedthepassiveacceptanceofDollfuss’sconstitutional breachashisgravestmistake.Andindeed,whatgoodwerethesuperfluousand ambiguousdeliberations from the 1926programmeof Linz, formulatedwith potentialbourgeois resistanceagainstmajority-backedsocialist rule inmind? Clearly, the party was not prepared tomake use even of a self-evident and frequently invoked right to self-defenceandput itswords intopracticewhen facing amuchmore straightforward case, the violationof commonconstitu- tional law.AkintotheGermanSocialDemocratsandotherdemocratic forces inGermany,AustrianSocialDemocracy cannotbe spared fromthe reproach that it passively surrendered the foundationsofdemocracywithout even the slightestattemptatresistance. The failure to act in 1933, however, had a long prehistory.Was the party’s paramilitaryorganisation,theRepublikanischeSchutzbund,reallyintendedas acombatformation–orwasitonlyabluffservingtointimidatetheopponent andpacifytheparty’ssupporters?Becausethelatterwasthecase,thismechan- ism,whichhadserved itspurposeupuntil 1927, lost itseffectivenessafter the bloodyeventsof 15 July 1927.Evenprior to theviolence thatunfoldedduring thatyear, the imperial generalTheodorKörnermadea remark thatwouldbe fully vindicated by future events as hewithdrew from the Schutzbund: ‘You cannot fight awarwith an army of pacifists’. The Social Democrats had the option todisarmone-sidedly – since therewasno general political andmil- itary disarmament – andmorally andpolitically capitalise on this voluntary sacrifice.Orelse,becomeseriousabout the fight theyhadbeenthreatening– at leastwhentherewasaneed for self-defence,whichwasplainly thecase in 1933. Because the Social-Democratic leadership couldnot decideonewayor theother, thestruggleagainstthebourgeoisenemywasalreadypolitically lost beforethemilitarystrugglecouldbegin. The real fault on the part of the Social-Democratic leadership, andOtto Bauer,wasthattheypersuadedthemselves,andthemasseswhotrustedthem, thattheypossessedaconceptforstruggleandthewill tofight. Inreality, these twonecessaryelementsforasuccessfuldefenceweremissing,givinglietothe revolutionarypathosthatthepartycontinuedtoextol. What ismore, there is every reason toquestionOttoBauer’s fundamental understandingofdemocracy–asopposedtotheconceptionofdemocracyon whichKarlRennerbasedhis tactical and strategic considerations andwhich remains impressive even to this day. Bauer’s, by contrast, hardly possesses qualitiesthatcorrespondtoacontemporary,pluralistdefinitionofdemocracy. Thus, Bauer’s treatise, ‘Die Zukunft der Sozialdemokratie’ (‘The Future of Social Democracy’), published in the December 1931 edition ofDer Kampf,