Page - 256 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

256 chapter 6 limitationsonthedependencybetweeneconomicconditionsandthepolitical system, even if by doing so he contradicted someof his own statements on thefunctionofobjectivehistorical factors.HewasinclinedtoagreewithMarx ononepoint: democracy remainedan instrument of class rule, andbecause itpreserved the ruleof capital, thebourgeoisdemocratic republicwasaclass state of the bourgeoisie. Yet essentially, Bauer upheld that legal forms and institutions were relatively independent from the economic base, believing it possible to regulate the economy through legal institutions. According to Bauer, the social content of power under democracywas determinedby the existingcompositionofclassforces.Thiscomposition,inturn,wasdetermined bynotonlyeconomicbutalsosocial factors, suchas thestrengthof theclass, degree of organisation, strength of its ideology, and politicalmaturity. From thishemadetwoobservations,bothofwhichillustratedthedecisivenecessity of political democracy in political practice. The first, in short, is as follows: political democracy facilitated the democratic control of economic power – even in the capitalist state, it could already become an instrument to limit exploitationbasedoncapital.Thesecondreiteratedafundamentalconviction ofAustromarxist revolutionarytheory. Itdeterminedthatpoliticaldemocracy enabledtheproletariattoemancipateitselfeconomicallybecauseitofferedthe possibilityofwinningsocialhegemony‘byintellectualmeans’. Itwastherefore asufficientconditionfortheseizureofpowerbytheproletariat. ForBauer,parliamentwassignificantinpoliticaldemocracy,yetitwouldbe simplistictoclaimthatheidentifieddemocracywiththesystemofparliament- ary representation. Bauer explained the difference as follows: ‘Democracy – that ismore thanparliamentarism,more than the voiceof legal institutions. Forme, thestateconstitutionoffers thebestpossibleguaranteefor individual intellectual freedom’ (our translation).22 This argumentwas informedbyhis aspirationtoextendthedemocraticprincipleofpopularsovereigntytoallareas of social activity, especially the economic and political realms. Admittedly, Bauerequatedparliamentarismandpoliticaldemocracywheneverhereferred toit.HispositionwasafaithfulreiterationofKelsen’sideas–forKelsen,parlia- mentarismmanifestlyrepresentedtheonlypolitical form‘inwhichtheideaof democracycanbe fulfilledwithin today’s social reality.Thusadecisionabout parliamentarismisatthesametimeadecisionaboutdemocracy’.23Bauerand 22 ‘Die Demokratie – das ist mehr als der Parlamentarismus, mehr als eine Stimme jur- istischer Institutionen. Sie ist mir die Staatsverfassung, die die bestmöglichen Bürg- schaftender individuellen,dergeistigenFreiheitgibt’–Bauer1980j,p.487. 23 Kelsen2000,pp.95–6.