Page - 113 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

a contribution to the theory of imperialism 113 rejected theSocialDemocrats’ financial plan tout court. Bydoing so, it disas- sociateditself fromtheprospectofco-operatingwiththeSocialDemocratson economicquestions.78 Asnotedearlier, the ‘Genevaregeneration’ thatthegovernmentintroduced resulted in theanticipatedstabilisationof theeconomy,yetat thesametime, astheSocialDemocratshadfeared,itdeepenedthepolarisationofsociety.The costsofovercomingthecrisisweresharedunequally,hittingthepoorest layers ofsociety–includingpensioners,disabledwarveterans,andtheunemployed– hardest. 3.3 RationalisationCrisis Inthispassage, IwillnotcontentmyselfwithBauer’sviewoftheconjunctural andstructuralcrisisbecausethatwouldnotexhaustthesubject.Whatismore, Bauer’sopiniononcriseschangedsomewhatin1931.Thisevolutionwascondi- tionedbythethreatoffascisisationinWesternEuropeancountries,aswellas– indirectly–byhishopesforademocraticdevelopmentintheSovietUnion.In his 1931workKapitalismusundSozialismusnachdemWeltkriegBd. 1Rational- isierung–Fehlrationalisierung (CapitalismandSocialismafter theWorldWar, volume1–RationalisationandMisrationalisation), Bauer referred to thecrisis of 1929 as a rationalisation crisis, i.e. a crisis of economic and technological progress.79Themainquestionthataroseherepertainedtothecausesofdegen- eration anderrors in the rationalisationprocess.Heofferedone answer: the capitalistmode of production itself is to blame, as it contains the inherent contradictionbetweencapitalandlabour.Todefendhisthesis,hepointedout thatentrepreneursstrivetoreducecostsratherthanreducethesocialcostsof production. This is consistentwith the practice of claiming public subsidies financed by taxmoney that is equally common today. Bauer just as sharply denounced the negative consequences of rationalisation such as unemploy- the state,were laid byGunnarMyrdal in Sweden, and– interestingly – in 1933byOtto BauerinhisworkArbeitfür200.000(Workfor200,000). In1927,BauerandRennerpleaded for state concessions to enterprises in the nameof the party leadership; they believed that in thisway itwaspossible tostimulate theeconomyandreduceunemployment. In thesdap, JohannSchorschwarnedthat suchan interventionmightbring ‘technological unemployment’ in itswake,yethisopinionwasnot takenintoconsideration–seeMattl 1985,p.90. 78 HansKernbauerdemonstratedthenegativeconsequencesofgovernmentpoliciesforthe economyandstatefinances inKernbauer1990,pp.324–5. 79 Bauerintendedforthisworktobeastudyinfourvolumes,butonlythefirstwaspublished. Itwasnotverywell receivedinAustria,andcriticismwasstrong.SeeChaloupek2009.