Page - 90 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

90 chapter 3 ThereasonsastowhyMarx’sdisciples,wholivedinadifferenteconomicand socialreality–capitalismhadentereditsimperialistphase–consideredittheir primetasktoverify(orfalsify)Marx’sprognosisaboutthedirectionofcapitalist developmentareobvious.Eventhen,signswereloomingthatMarxmighthave beenmistaken about the route capitalismwould take,whichwas synonym- ouswith thedemiseof revolutionary theory–apillarof theMarxiansystem. At the turnof thenineteenth and twentieth centuries, Bernstein’s argument about thebreakdownof capitalismpolarisedMarxist circles. Part of the con- troversyconcernedquestionssurroundingcrises: therewereopponentsof the theoryof capitalism’s inevitablebreakdownonone side, andpassionatepro- ponentsontheother.Bernstein,MikhailTugan-Baranovsky,ConradSchmidt, WolfgangHeineandMaxSchippel represented the formercamp,whileKaut- sky,LouisBoudin,HeinrichCunowandRosaLuxemburgwerestalwartsof the latter. The dispute regarding the breakdownof capitalism,whichwas raging betweentheopposingcampsfrom1899–1913,raisedanumberofquestions. Its importance for theworkers’movementcannotbeoverestimated. Indeed, the revolutionaryperspectivesandstrategy thatSocial-Democraticpartieswould choosedependedontheconclusionsdrawnhere. Atafactualandtheoretical level,bothsides inthisdebatebasedtheirargu- mentsoneconomics.Buteven ifMarx’s economic theoryprovided reference points forboth, theirconclusionswerenonethelessdiametricallyopposed. In anutshell, theessenceof theargumentwasas follows: orthodoxMarxists (1) defendedthepropositionthatproductionandpropertywouldbeconcentrated andcentralised,followedbyaconcentrationofpropertyincommerceandagri- culture;(2)emphasisedhowthenegativeimpactofthemonopoliesandcartels intensified class antagonisms: (3) drew attention to the increasing polarisa- tionofcapitalistsociety intotwobasicsocialgroups–capitalistsandworkers; (4) upheld the concept that the capitalist statehas a class character; and (5) providedevidencethatthetheoryoftheimpoverishmentoftheproletariatwas still relevant. The revisionists took the adverse viewon all questions.Hence theirbelief that capitalismhadstrong ‘self-defensive’ powerswasmatchedat aneconomiclevelbytheconceptofcapitalism’s ‘growingintosocialism’.From this, theydrewthepracticalconclusionthat revolutionisdestructiveandhad tobeabandoned. As timemovedon–especially followingtheoutbreakofWorldWari–the controversysurroundingthebreakdownofcapitalismwanedinimportancefor nomictheorythat ‘nowhere inhisworkis theretobefoundadoctrineof thespecifically economicbreakdownofcapitalistproduction’–Sweezy1964,p. 192.