Page - 267 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

state, democracy, socialism 267 dowithLenin’s ‘dictatorshipoftheproletariat’,whichrepresentedthesuperior might of the victoriousworking class. Its political formwouldbeproletarian democracy, i.e. the ruleof theworkingclass emerging fromgeneral elections whichaccountedforthewillofthemajorityandguaranteedcivilrightssuchas freedomofspeech,science, faith,assemblyandassociation.34However,Bauer did not regard this phase of development as fully-fledged democracy,which he believedwould only come to fruition under socialism and its respective political order, namely socialist democracy.This typeofdemocracydemands furtherexplanation,afterall, the term‘socialistdemocracy’was liberallyused in the Eastern Bloc states andmight therefore be confusedwith Commun- ist practice. For Bauer, socialist democracywas politically synonymouswith representative democracy. Economically, itwas synonymouswith a classless communityofproducersbasedatthelocal level(factories,communes, towns) ontheprincipleofself-management.At thetime,Bauer intendedhisconcept as a counterweight to the Bolsheviks’ theory. It contradicted a majority of theirtheses,particularlyLenin’sargumentinStateandRevolution,accordingto whichdemocracywouldwitheraway inaclassless society.Hisargumentwas alsoobliquelydirectedagainstLenin’sassertionthattheCommunistPartyhad aleadingroleduringtheprocessofsocialandeconomictransformation.While Bauerremainedquietonthequestionofpoliticalrepresentationinthesocial- ist state,hisunderstandingof ‘socialistdemocracy’precludedtheauthorityof anysinglepoliticalorganisation. Indeed, thevery fact thatBauer forwentany detaileddescriptionoftheformsthatasocialistpoliticalsystemmighttakewas ahallmarkofhisexcellence.Hethusavoidedmakingthekindofpropheciesfor whichtheBolshevikswereknown. It is worth citing another issue associated with the theory of socialism outlinedabove. Inhis economic theory, Bauer echoedMarx’s insistence that a planned economy should bemaintained under socialism. This was by no meansatoddswithBauer’scall fordecentralisedself-managementintheeco- nomicrealm.Bauerneverconflatedtheplannedeconomywithauthoritarian state regulation inproduction.Rather, he spokeof apolitical orderbasedon democratic planning, whichwould be preceded by debate and thus receive society’sconsent.Thismodelenvisionedtheroleofthestateasbeinglimitedto coordinatingtheactionsofeconomicsubjectsandensuringequalopportunit- ies inthecourseofeconomicdevelopment.Bauer’sconceptborenosimilarity totheLeninist-Bolsheviknotionofplanning,whichrequiredthecentralisation ofeconomicdecisions.Thetwosolutionswere, infact,opposites: therelation- 34 CompareGransowandKrätke1985,p. 116.