Page - 258 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

258 chapter 6 administera state.As iswell-known, thesehopeswerealreadysquandered in theearlystagesoftheRussianexperiment.Historyhasshownthattheposition ofmoderateSocialDemocrats,whohadarealisticpictureoftheworkingclass andviewedbourgeoisdemocracypreciselyasatoolofpoliticaleducation,was justified. Likewise,Bauer’sworkwas shapedby thebelief in theprogressive charac- ter of bourgeois democracy, even if this was a tense relationship. Formany years,hestresseddemocracy’sbenefits for thepolitical emancipationof soci- ety,yetat thesametimepointedtoitsdeficits,whichwererootedincapitalist property relations.Whileclaiming thatbourgeoisdemocracywasaprop that supported the economic and ideological power of the propertied classes, he didnotgoas faras toconsider thecapitalist-friendly statusquoasaperman- entcondition.Economicandextra-economicmeansof repression,heargued, would only remain in the hands of capitalists as long as they were able to present their interest as the interest of all classes. Theydominated thebour- geoispoliticalparties,andthereforethemiddleclassesandpartoftheworking class, only because they claimed that this interest had tobepursued for the sake of the economy. Bauer’s polemics againstMarx andparticularly Lenin’s arguments requiresomeattention.Forboththinkers, everygovernment,be it democraticornot,wasadictatorshipof therulingclassovertheruledclasses. Consequently, bourgeois democracywas synonymouswith a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. In his defence of bourgeois democracy, Bauer admonished Adler’s belief that theAustrian bourgeois governmentswere essentially dic- tatorial in the political sense of unrestricted power. According to Bauer, the minorityruleofcapitalwassecuredbyamajorityruleofbourgeoispartiesthat acceptedtheruleofcapital– this, forhim,was thespecificcharacterofbour- geoisdemocracy.26AlthoughBauerheldbourgeoisdemocracyinhighesteem, 26 ‘Thepointispreciselythattheruleofthecapitalistclassindemocracyisnotanunrestric- ted ruleof thecapitalist.Onedeniesoneself the recognitionofhistoricalparticularity if one…regardseveryclassruleasaclassdictatorship…[I]tispreciselythespecificfeatures ofdemocracy thatget lost in theprocess: thatbourgeoisdemocracydoesnotyet repres- entmajority rule, but aminority rule of the big bourgeoisie through themajority rule of thebourgeoismassparties.On theotherhand, the requirementsofmajority govern- mentplace limitsontheclassruleof thebigbourgeoisie, thusdistinguishingdemocracy fromtheunlimitedruleknownasdictatorship’(ourtranslation).Original: ‘DieHerrschaft der Kapitalistenklasse in der Demokratie ist eben nicht eine unbeschränkte Diktatur derKapitalistenklasse;manmachtsichselbstdieErkenntnisdergeschichtlichenBeson- derheitdereinzelnenStaatsformenunmöglich,wennman…jedeKlassenherrschaft für eineKlassendiktatur ansieht…Dabei geht gerade das Spezifische derDemokratie ver-