Page - 94 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

94 chapter 3 istic forces and increasing financial autonomyof big corporations.Hence, Bauer – likeHilferding–drew thedubious conclusion that the combined interests of all entrepreneurs could be consolidated into a central cartel, completewithanewlyestablishedworldbankcontrollingandadminister- ingallproductionaccording toaplan.Fromthis, theyunjustifiably further concluded that therewas an intrinsic tendency of theworld economy to transformintoasocialisedplannedeconomy.22 – Thirdly, thebeliefthataneworganisationalformofeconomiclifeiscreated by thepolicies of the cartels,which strive for amonopolypositionon the worldmarket.Thesepoliciesintensifythestruggleagainstsmall-scaleenter- prise,whichiseconomicallycompelledtointegrateinordertosurvive,even ifitcanonlydosointhismodifiedform.23Asaresultofthisstruggle,onlybig industrialmonopolies can survive in themarket.24NeitherHilferdingnor Bauerhesitated todrawa far-reachingconclusion fromtheseanalyses: the cartelswoulddisplace small- andmedium-sizedenterprises fromthemar- ketandthus ‘introduce’aregulativefactortoeconomiclife.25 Onthegroundsofeconomicscience,Bauerregardedthedevelopmenttenden- ciesofimperialismoutlinedaboveasinevitableandobjective.Thisisnottosay thathefailedtoseetheirnegativeconsequences,especiallytheirsocialeffects. The centralisation of production and capitalmight have a positive effect on technicalandeconomicprogressbyincreasinglabourefficiency,yet,according toBauer,undercapitalismthisisnotsynonymouswithprogress.Technological development increasesexploitationandunemployment,ascapitalistsarenot interested in the social implications, butonly in theeconomiceffectsofnew technology, i.e. themaximisationofprofits.Anothernegativephenomenonof centralisationis theconstraintondemocracy ineconomic life: itallowsatiny groupofpowerfulcapitalistswhoowntheinstrumentsofeconomicandpolit- icalpowertorisetothetop. 22 SeeBauer1976q,p.849. 23 Lenin,TrotskyandLuxemburgwerealsoconvincedthataprocessofevermoreprofound globaleconomicintegrationwastakingplace. 24 Bauer interchangeably referred to this phase of capitalist development as ‘monopoly capitalism’, ‘organisedcapitalism’,or ‘statecapitalism’. 25 Bauerhadalreadydevelopedthesethreethesesinhisarticle‘DasFinanzkapital’(‘Finance Capital’) – see Bauer 1980c, pp. 377–87.One can find a similar viewpoint in theworks ofBernsteinat theendof thenineteenthcentury. Lenin subjected it to criticism in 1901 whenheattemptedtoprovethatmonopolieswould further intensify thecontradictions ofcapitalisteconomy.SeeLenin1964,pp.213–16.