| Synopsis: |
Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic leader and theorist. Expelled from Germany as a result of Bismarck's antisocial law, he emigrated to Switzerland where he became editor of "Der Sozialdemokrat", the rallying point of the underground Socialist Party. When Bismarck secured his expulsion from Switzerland, Bernstein continued publication of the periodical from London, where he became a friend of Engels and of the leaders of the Fabian Society. Bernstein returned to Germany in 1901, and became the theoretician of the revisionist school of socialism which rejected Marx's prediction of the approaching collapse of capitalism, the class war and the achievement of socialism by revolution. For him, democratic reforms opened up the prospect of improving the lot of the working class by peaceful means. These views were strongly challenged inside Germany by many who were concerned to defend the classical Marxist heritage. Although successive party congresses condemned Bernstein's views, he was a representative of German social democracy in the Reichstag from 1902-1906, 1912-1918 and 1920-1928.This collection presents the English-language reader with essays that are representative of Bernstein's much-neglected, revisionist period, from 1901-1921. Most Anglo-American commentators on Bernstin's socialist theory have either downplayed or ignored more than two decades' worth of theoretical clarification and refinement following his early arguments. Bernstein himself suggested that his later work included significant new elements previously not discussed, indicating further progress in his liberal-socialist theory. Bernstein's later work acquires additional significance in the light of the events of 1989, which have discredited not only Marxism-Leninism, but revolutionary Marxist theory in general, thus making the re-evaluation of Bernstein's revisionism a useful enterprise. |