Page - 106 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

106 chapter 3 Displayinganacute senseof intuition incontrast to the theorists of either camp,Baueridentifiedafactthathadremainedunnoticedinthedebateamong Social Democrats. The relationship between individual economic branches andsections, as anaspectof the social processofproduction, isnot separate fromthesocialcapacitytoconsume–thetwoareinterdependent.Thisconcept was decidedly novel: Bauer drew on both theories (disproportionality and underconsumption) to explain the causes of crisis, arguing that capitalism’s possibilities of self-defence lay in overcoming its tendencies to issues such asdisproportionandunderconsumption.However,Bauerattributedagreater role to the regulatory properties of the consumermarket than he did to a balancedrelationshipbetweenthetwodepartmentsofsocialproduction.57 When formulating his conception of saving capitalism from crisis, Bauer tookhis critiqueof Rosa Luxemburg’s theory as a startingpoint.Hehad cri- ticisedhertext,TheAccumulationofCapital, asearlyas1913.58Letustherefore brieflyreiteratethetheorythatBauerconsideredtobeLuxemburg’smostthe- oreticallymisguided – and therefore dangerous – for the Social-Democratic movement.LikeMarx,Luxemburg thought thatcapitalism’s realgoalwasnot to cover society’s consumerneeds, but constant profitmaximisation.At one point,however,shedidnotconcurwithMarx:sheinsteadquestionedhisview that there could be unlimited capital accumulation, arguing that the endof capitalismis inevitablewhen itmeets its limits in the formofclosedborders. She did not attach anymajor importance to the evolution of the domestic market, as she believed that its capacity to absorb capitalwas limited – the causeof recurringcrises inhighlydevelopedcountries.Crucially, Luxemburg citedtheexistenceofnon-capitalistcountriesasacoreprerequisiteforanyfur- thercapitalaccumulation.Hence,sheassumedthatcapitalismmeetsitslimits ofdevelopmentandcollapses themoment it absorbsand transforms the last non-capitalistelements.Kautskyputforwardasimilarviewpoint,accordingto whichtheexistenceofagricultural countrieswasan imperative for thedevel- opmentofcapitalism.ForKautsky,theirtransformationintoindustrialnations impliestheendofthesystem.59 Bauer far fromaccepted these suppositions.As readerswill remember, he rejectedthetheoryofovercomingcrisesbyexpandingforeignmarketsthrough protagonistsofbothcampsdidshareabasicidea,whiletheirmoredetailedanalyseswere verydifferent.Todissecttheproblemindetailwouldgobeyondthescopeofthisbook. 57 Productionisdividedintotwomajordepartments:thefirstisthedepartmentofmeansof production(i); thesecondisthedepartmentofarticlesofconsumption(ii). 58 TherelevantarticleappearedinDieNeueZeiton7and14February1913. 59 SeeKautsky1910,p.222,andKautsky1911.