Page - 224 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

224 chapter 5 In a section entitled ‘The transition to the socialist social order’, the sdap demandedthatallprivatepropertyandestatesbelongingtothechurch,aswell as all privatewoodlands andpastures, benationalised, and the right tohunt for the sake of private profit abolished for the benefit of the state and com- munes.Thecommunesweretobecomethebasiceconomicunitsandcentres ofcreatingsocialistrelationsinthecountryside. Inreality, theroleofthecom- munewasprogrammatically limited todeciding theusage rights toappropri- ated land, regulatingharvestworkandcattlebreeding, anddrawingupwood andpasturemanagementplans for thebenefit of thevillagepopulation.The programmeexplicitly stressed that the smallholders’ and urbanproletariat’s appetitesfor landcouldnotbesatisfiedaslongascapitalistrelationspersisted inthecountryside–thatwouldonlybepossiblewiththeintroductionofsocial- ism.Hence, itdemandedneitherthedistributionofnationalisedland,northe capitulationof private agricultural enterprises. Instead, it implied adifferent solution: big agricultural enterpriseswouldbe foundedonnationalised land and administrated just like regular industrial workplaces (although the pro- grammedidnotstatewhowouldbeemployed).Thisproposalwasconsistent withtheSocialDemocrats’confidenceinthesuperiorityofbigenterprisesover smaller ones, as well as the notion that they were the arbiters of technical progress in the countryside.132 In the event that conditionswerenot ripe for establishinganew,commoneconomicunit, theprogrammerecommendedto leasethenewlyestablishedenterprisestocompetentpeasantsor,alternatively, leave the land to theprevious ownerswhile simultaneously subjecting them tostate leadershipandcontrol. This solutionwasconducive to threeaims,of whichtheSocialDemocratsconsideredthelasttobethemost important.The supplyoflandcouldberaised,pricesforlandrisingabovethevalueofrevenue generatedcouldbecounteracted,andagriculturecouldbeintegratedintothe plannedeconomicprocess. Withoutadoubt, theagriculturalprogrammeof thesdapcontainedmany ideas that were attractive from a social perspective. Among the guarantees it offered, therewasequal access to education, limits to individual privileges and rights if they conflictedwith the commongoodof the rural population, theutilisationof communityproperty, andprotectionof theweak.Theover- arching principle that inspired the creators of the programmewas not the expropriation or nationalisation of land as such, but rather that the admin- istration of landwould be taken up by immediate producers in the formof individual enterprises, co-operatives, and production plants. The role of the 132 SeeBauer1978b,p.243.