Page - 257 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

state, democracy, socialism 257 Kelsenbothbelievedthattruefreedomcouldonlybeobtainedthroughparlia- mentarydemocracy.Moreover,boththeoristsconsideredparliamentarismthe onlytool thatcouldkeepclassantagonismswithincertainlimits. Bauerwassceptical towardsparliamentarismduringtheearlyperiodofhis political activity.Certainly, the reasonwas that at thebeginningof the twen- tieth century, theworking class could not look back onmany successes on the parliamentary stage.24 The slur ‘parliamentary cretinism’, which, already present inMarx’sworkandusedbyBauer in1910,heapedscornonthenotion that thecapitalist class systemcouldbe transformedthroughparliamentand wasapopularphraseamongstworkers.Allthesame,Bauer’scritiqueofparlia- mentarismhadanideologicalcharacter.Heconfinedhimselftostatingthatthe balanceofforcesinparliamentwasareflectionofthesocialandclassorder,and thatonlyasocial revolutioncouldchange it.Notably, thisverdictdidnotstop himfromendorsingVictorAdler’schoiceofparliamentasthemainweaponof classstruggle. Bauer’s critiqueofparliamentarism,whichhevoicedmainly inpublic ap- pearances,intendedtocultivatetheworkingmasses’beliefintherevolutionary natureof theparty. In fact,Bauerhadalwaysbeenconvincedthatparliament would decisively assist in granting theworking class power. This belief was basedontheideathatparliamentwasbynatureclass-neutral.Giventheactual parliamentarydynamics, it is fair tosaythatthiswasmisleading.Thesuprem- acyof thebourgeois over SocialDemocracywasapermanent condition, and thebourgeois governmentpossessednot only themeansof state repression, butalso ideological influence,whichBauerhimself acknowledged.Hisevalu- ationastothedegreethattheproletariatcoulduseparliamentforthepurpose ofclass struggle isworth furtherexamination.Frankly,Bauerarguedonmore thanoneoccasionthattheproletariatwasnotpoliticallymatureenough.25Itis difficulttoarguewiththis.Atthetime,thepoliticalconsciousnessofthework- ingclasswasnotsufficientlyadvancedfor it toactasanindependentpolitical force. TheBolsheviks, confident in theveracity of their theory,were alone in theirassumptionthat seizingpower,buildinganewpoliticalorderbydecree, andproclaiming theparty tobe the leading forceof thenationcouldaccom- plish a sufficient level of working-class political sophistication to efficiently 24 At theendof thenineteenth century, bothwingsof theAustrianworkers’movement– moderateandradical–wereopposedtoleadingthepolitical struggle inparliament.The situationchangedfollowingtheunificationof theworkers’movement inHainfeld,when VictorAdlerdeclaredthatparliamentwasthecrucialsiteofstrugglefortheworkingclass towinsocial reformsandextendpolitical liberties. 25 Forexample, inBauer1976n,p.483.