Page - 306 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

306 chapter 8 1. A theory of fascismdrawing on the notion of Bonapartism in light of the situationinEuropeafterthevictoryoffascistregimesandconcurrentdefeat ofSocialDemocracy(1924–36); 2. A theory of Austrofascism that settled scores with the corporative state (Ständestaat) andDollfuss’s andSchuschnigg’s authoritariangovernments fromthepointofviewofSocialDemocracy(1934–8); 3. Atheoryoffascismdrawingonimperialismtheoryandlinkedtothesocialist movement’santi-fasciststruggle inthefaceof loomingwar(1939). Twopressingquestionsemerge.Firstly,dothesetheoriescontainelementsthat link them together – and if so, what are they? Secondly, howdo they differ from each other?We shall precede further analysis with a brief statement: only Bauer’s insights into the ideology and social base of fascism remained consistent in his three aforementioned theories, especially in the first and second. They differed in the most important aspects when explaining the phenomenonoffascism.Inthefirstandsecondtheories,sociological,political, and historical components prevailed. In the third, the emphasis shifted to economics. 2.1 FascismTheoryBasedontheNotionofBonapartism Thetheoryput forward inthechapter, ‘Fascism’, inBetweenTwoWorldWars– whichwentontobecomeBauer’sbest-knowntextonfascismwhenpublished separately –was his first attempt at a thorough explanation of fascism. Ele- mentsof thiswerealreadypresent in theauthor’s earlier essay,Gleichgewicht derKlassenkräfte(BalanceofClassForces),andintheLinzprogrammeof1926. In ‘Fascism’, he outlined the processes that provided fertile ground for fas- cism, the character of its ideology, its social base, and its social andpolitical consequences. However, the twomost fundamental aspectswere: firstly, his investigationofthesocialforcesandmechanismsthatallowedfascismtousurp powerfromtherepublicans;secondly,thequestionastohowfascismasamass movementdiffersfromfascisminpower,andthedifferencesbetweenthedom- inantandtherulingclasswithinthissystem.Wewill refertothistheoryasthe theoryofBonapartismbecause itwasbasedonthesociological scheme from Marx’sTheEighteenthBrumaireofLouisBonaparte (1852).27 Bauerclearlydifferentiatedbetweenthe fascistmovementandfascist rule. Theintegralelementinhisanalysisoffascism’sgenesiswashisidentificationof thesociologicalfactorsthatallowedfascismtomergedivergentsocialinterests 27 Botzalsousedthis termintheaforementionedarticles.