Page - 125 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the national question 125 of a given country’s intellectual culture, illustrates the historically changing objectivematerial conditions of social being.Moreover, the composition of national consciousness expresses the interests of the economically strongest (ruling) class, given that the samehistorical and economic process that fab- ricatesthebasisofclassrelationsalsounderliesemergingnationalrelations.14 Duetotheexclusionofcertainclasses fromthenationalcommunity,national consciousnesseitherhadafeudalorbourgeoischaracterinearly,pre-capitalist stagesofnationaldevelopment.Hence,Bauercorrectlyobservedthatthelack ofnational consciousnessmightbeduetoaclass’sobjectiveexistenceonthe fringesofanation.Forhim,afurthercrucialrequirementforthedevelopment ofnationalconsciousnesswasgeneralaccesstoculturalassets.Hisratification of this criterion per se reflected a perceptive observation: classes and social layers with limited access to culture displayed lower levels of national con- sciousness.Capitalismmanagedtoconquerthisobstacle,givingrisetotwonew phenomena: steadily growingnational consciousness in the ranksof thepro- letariatandtheincreasingdominanceofnationalaffinityoverclasssolidarity. Bauerwasinclinedtobelievethatinthemoderncapitaliststate,nationalaffin- ityassumedanincreasinglyharmoniouscharacterandwasstrongerthanclass bonds. Ifweconsidercontemporarystruggles fornational independence,his- toryseemstoconfirmthistendency. As an aside, Bauer’s text contained aparticular thesis according towhich all formsofsocialconsciousnessweresubjecttonationaldetermination.From this, it would logically follow that science is also subject to suchdetermina- tion.All the same,Bauerdidnotdeny theobjectiveexistenceof scienceas a supra-national formofacquiringknowledge inhisotherworks.This incoher- ence reflected the intellectual contradictions inwhich the youngBauerwas embroiled.Thepurposethathehimselfascribedtoscience–i.e.toexplainthe foundations of judgement innational categories andassess themcritically – wasampleevidencethathewasawareof itsobjectivestatus. 14 Bauerassociatedtheemergenceofnationalconsciousnesswiththeadvancingprocessof capitalisationof social andpolitical relations.Heclaimedthat this shiftoccurs, stageby stage,associety’smeansofproductionarerevolutionised.However,hewasoftenmistaken andhedidnotconsider increasingexploitation.Toofferanexample,hearguedthat the importofgoodsfromCzechialoweredwagesforGermanworkersandhadothernegative effects: ineconomicterms(Germanshadtopaythecostsofeconomicinequality),andin thesphereofconsciousness(thenationaldividesharpened).