Page - 171 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the ‘thirdway’ to socialism 171 andagrowingstandardof livingfortheworkingclass.Theprogrammesofthe respectivepartiesprovidedtheoretical justificationfortheconceptofpeaceful revolution– i.e. reforming the capitalist system throughparliament–which wasprevalentparticularly inAustrian socialism.7 From its inception, the fol- lowingbasicpositionswereits touchstones: – Underdemocraticconditions,theworkingclassstruggleforstatepowerwill assumelegal forms,andwillbecarriedout inparliament. – Aparliamentarymajority for theSocialDemocrats is theprecondition for thebeginningof the revolutionaryprocess.Toachieve thismajority, itwill benecessarytowinthemiddleclassestothesocialist idea. – The revolutionwill be anextendedprocess. Itwill culminate in the trans- formationoftheeconomicandpoliticalsystemofcapitalismintoasocialist stateorder.Hence,itwillnotbenecessarytobreakuptheoldeconomicand politicalapparatus. – Thesuccessoftheparliamentary-democraticrevolutionwillbedetermined bythepolitical,social,andculturalmaturityoftheworkingclass,whichcan onlybeachievedthroughalong-termeducationalprocess.8 All of these elementswere part of Bauer’s theory of socialist revolution. He defined themmore closely andcomplemented themwith theory and tactics thatwere specific toAustrian conditions and reflected the international bal- anceof forcesduringtherevolutionaryperiod. Likemany ideologistsofWesternSocialDemocracyat the time,Bauer saw nopossibilityof aBolshevik-style revolutionunderWesternEuropeancondi- tions.Therewereboththeoreticalandaxiologicalreasonsastowhyherejected it. Theoretically, he dismissed it as a voluntaristic experiment at odds with Marxism. Fromanaxiological standpoint, he considered it aneconomic and cultural disaster, anda tragedy for the individual. Bauerpresented twoargu- mentsagainstrevolutionarymethodsofactionandproletariandictatorshipin WesternEuropeancountries. Firstly,hecited thenecessity topreservedemo- 7 It representedamiddlegroundbetweenBernstein’s campof radical reformismand thatof radicalcommunists. 8 Elementsof thisconceptionwerealsopresent inGermanSocial-Democratic thought– first amongtherevisionists,andlaterwithKautsky.Thefactthattheyneverevolvedfurthermight bebecausetheymergedmanycontradictoryorientations.ThattheAustromarxistschosethe parliamentary-democraticway to socialismwasdown topsychological and social reasons. The party leaders hailed frombourgeois circles with democratic traditions, which is why Austrianeverproducedarevolutionary ‘type’.