Page - 247 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

state, democracy, socialism 247 takecontroloftheinstitutionsofthecapitaliststatebydemocraticmeansand givethemnewclasscontent.Theirbeliefthatitwasnotnecessarytoeradicate theoldstateapparatus,as itcouldautomaticallybemadetoserveproletarian rule, was one of the factors that determined theAustrian Social Democrats’ favourable attitude toward parliamentarism. This perspective stood in stark contradictiontoLenin,whoarguedthatthepermanenceofrevolutionarypro- cessesdependedontheabolitionofthebourgeoisstate. UnlikeMaxAdlerandRenner,Bauerpaid littleattentionto theoriesof law and the state prior toWorldWar i. Instead, he concentrated on sociological analyses of the social content and function of the state, arriving at resolu- tionsconsistentwithMarxisttheory:thestatehadtobeunderstoodasaruling instrumentoftheeconomicallydominantclasses.Consequently,thebourgeois statewasradicallycounterposedtotheproletarianstate.Thisconceptioncor- respondedwithBauer’s historic-philosophical proclivity, according towhich theworkingclassandthebourgeoisieweretheprimaryantagonisticagents in thehistoricalprocess. Inreferencetotheperceptionofthestateasaclassstate,Bauerstressedthe superiorityof the socialist over thecapitalist state inall dimensionsof social life, includingintheeconomic,politicalandmoraldomains.Onecannotavoid the impression,however, thatmanyofhisstatementsonthestateandsociety of thefuturewerenotstrictly theoretical,butpropagandistic–aswasalsothe casewithhistemporarycriticismsofthebourgeoisstate. Bauer’s statementsonstate socialismdrewonavarietyof assertions com- mon inMarxist literature, butwhichplayednopart in the political practice of Social Democracy. Theywere essentially prognoses about the emergence ofaclassless society inwhichademocraticallyappointedgovernmentwould replace the coercive state apparatus and self-manage production, exchange and administration.What specific forms governmentwould take in thepro- letarian state after a successful socialist revolutionwas a question that was approachedverycautiously.Haditbeenraisedprogrammatically, for instance asademandforproletariandictatorship,thepartymighthavenolongerfound itpossible towinthemiddleclassesasvoters, andthus theSocialDemocrats’ preferred strategy and tactics would then fail. Secondly, Bauer thought that the concentration and centralisationof capital represented an early stage of thesocialistplannedeconomy.Tied into thiswas the ideathat thesocialpro- cess hadanevolutionarydisposition, and that the legal andpolitical institu- tionsof thebourgeoisstatewould ‘growinto’ institutionsof thesocialist state. This ideaprovidedsomeofthebasis forthesdap’s focusonshort-termtactics ratherthandistant,strategicobjectives.Thirdly,Bauerdecidedlydistinguished betweentwodimensionsofthestate:thestateasaformalorganisationofsoci-