Page - 26 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

26 chapter 1 theywerejustifiedinconsideringBauer’spoliticsofpreventingrevolutionfar- sighted.Theauthorofthesocialisationprogrammehimselfwasmoresceptical inevaluating thechancesof its fulfilment thantheenthusiasticworkers,who joinedthepartyenmasse (ithad500,000membersat the time).Bauer feared theeconomicweaknessofthestateandtheconsolidationofcapitalistforcesas threatstotheenduranceofhisreforms.Hisfearswouldsoonbeconfirmed:the emboldenedpositionof theChristianSocialParty in thecountrysideandthe SocialDemocrats’concessionstocapitalistcirclesmeantthatthesocialisation questionwaned inpractical importanceafterAugust 1919. Itspoliticaleffects, however,mettheexpectationsofthesdapleadership:notonlydiditavertthe dangerof revolution,but it also increased theworkers’ trust andbelief in the effectivenessofsdapleadershippolicies.ThesecircumstancesaffirmedBauer inhisbeliefthatthepeaceful,democratic,so-called‘thirdway’tosocialismwas anoptimalsolutionunderAustriancircumstances. In fact, thepolitical situationof 1919 revealed that thechosenstrategyand tacticswere based on a poor assessment of the actual situation. As early as 8 January 1919, the chief of police, Johann Schober, presented a list of key measuresforthestruggleagainstBolshevismatacabinetmeeting.TheSocial- Democratic politicianswere not fully aware that theChristian Social Party’s willingness to form a coalition government had sparked the revolutionary insurrectionandshakenthesocio-political foundationsofthepostwarperiod. After the fall of the Bavarian andHungarian soviet republics on 2May and 1 July 1919 respectively, the danger of revolution inAustria had already been contained. Thebourgeois bloc in parliament gradually began to exclude the SocialDemocrats fromgovernment.The first step in thisdirectionwasmade whena cabinet basedonproportional representation replaced the coalition government.AfteraninterpellationsubmittedbydelegatesoftheGreaterGer- manPartyon 10 June 1920, co-operationbetweenthesdapandtheChristian SocialParty inthiscabinetwasrelinquished.Thesecondstepwasmadewhen the constitutiondraftedbyHansKelsenwas adoptedon 1November 1920.65 TheSocial-Democraticleaders,includingBauer,supportedthisdraftbecauseit legitimisedthecoalitionbetweenthesdapandtheChristianSocials. Itwould serve the Social Democrats as a platform for the co-operation between the workingclassandpeasantry.Thesdapleadershipwaswrongtoexpectthatthe 65 Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) was an Austrian state and law theorist, the founder of legal normativismandthe ‘pure theoryof law’.Hedrewonthenormativemethod,apeculiar choicewithregardstolaw,andassumedadualismofbeingandought.Consequently,any judgementintherealmoflegaltheorywasabandoned,andlawwasabstractedfromsocio- historicalandpsychological foundations.