Page - 250 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

250 chapter 6 Bauer also strove to consider the premises onwhich the hypothesis of a graduallychangingbourgeois statedepended.Hewasconvincedthat thebal- ance of class power had allowed for the emergence of an ‘ultra-democratic’ formofstate,apeople’srepublic. Itsessencewassupposedlyavariationofthe parliamentary systemmodifiedandadjustedbya functionaldemocracy. The politicalorderproposedbyBauerwasdefinedbythesubordinationoftheexec- utivetoparliamentarycontrol,additionallyreinforcedbysocialorganisations. Bauerassumedthatthegovernmentwouldnotbeabletorelysolelyonanelec- tedparliamentduetostrong,extra-parliamentaryandprimarilyworking-class pressure groups. It would have to seek approval from autonomous citizens’ organisations to legitimise its conduct. For Bauer, the shifting paradigms of exertingpowerimpliedthatthefunctionofthestatewaschangingtoo.Itwould transitionfromactingaswatchmanofthecapitalisteconomicandsocialorder tomediatorbetweenthesectional interestsofdifferentsocialgroups.Accord- ing to ‘balanceof classpower’ state theory,maintaining thatequilibriumwas aconditionfor thedevelopmentof reformistsocialism. Inreality,concessions grantedtotheworkingclassbythebourgeoisieweremeasurestostabilisecap- italism,evenif theyservedthetemporaryinterestsoftheworkingmasses.The belief that thebourgeoisie and theproletariat couldpermanently and amic- ably share political power in any state proved to be an illusion. Even Bauer was conscious that underneath the temporary balance of class power, there was a tendency for class antagonisms to thrive. In his polemicwith Kelsen, heacknowledgedthat the ‘balanceofclasspower’wasa transitionalphase in thedevelopmentof the state, and that it could evolve in twooppositedirec- tions.Itwouldeitherleadtotheworkingclassconfiscatingstatepowerorresult in a situationwhere bourgeois dominancewas restored and the proletariat driven to the peripheries.8 As chair of theworkers’ party, hewanted to sus- tain themasses’ faith in reformistpractice.Hence,heoptimisticallydeclared that a statebasedon the ‘balanceof classpower’ couldbe remodelled intoa proletarian state. Thiswas based on the notion –de factounderappreciated inMarxism–that legal institutionscouldregulate theeconomy.Baueraccor- dedgreatsignificancetotheprojectofchangingconsciousness.Hewantedthe workingclasstoachievehegemonyintheimmaterialworld.Forhim,thesepro- jectswerethemeansbywhichtotransformthebourgeoisstatedemocratically. ConcerningthebasicconditionsinWestEuropeandemocraciesasopposedto, say,SovietRussia,hewas inclinedtobelievethat thepoliticalandlegal super- structurewas relatively independent of the economic structure. To conceive 8 ComparealsoSaage1986,p. 146.