Views
Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus (1899) was Bernstein's most significant work. Bernstein was principally concerned with refuting Marx's predictions about the imminent and inevitable demise of capitalism, and Marx's consequent laissez faire policy which opposed socialist interventions before the demise. Bernstein pointed out simple facts that he took to be evidence that Marx's predictions were not being borne out: he noted that the centralisation of capitalist industry, while significant, was not becoming wholescale and that the ownership of capital was becoming more, and not less, diffuse.
As to Marx's belief in the disappearance of the middleman, Bernstein declared that the entrepreneur class was being steadily recruited from the proletariat class, and therefore all compromise measures, such as the state regulation of the hours of labor, provisions for old-age pensions, and so on, should be encouraged and taken advantage of. For this reason, Bernstein urged the laboring classes to take an active interest in politics. Bernstein also pointed out what he considered to be some of the flaws in Marx's labor theory of value.
In its totality, Bernstein's analysis formed a powerful critique of Marxism, and this led to his vilificationamong many orthodox Marxists. Bernstein remained, however, very much a socialist, albeit an unorthodox one: he believed that socialism would be achieved through capitalism, not through capitalism's destruction (as rights were gradually won by workers, their cause for grievance would be diminished, and consequently, so too would the foundation of revolution). During the intra-party debates about his ideas, Bernstein explained that, for him, the final goal of socialism was nothing; movement toward that goal was everything.
Although Marx would argue that free trade would be the quickest fulfillment of the capitalist system, and thus its end, Bernstein viewed protectionism as helping only a selective few, being fortschrittsfeindlich (anti-progressive), for its negative effects on the masses. Germany's protectionism, Bernstein argued, was only based on political expediency, isolating Germany from the world (especially from Britain), creating an autarky that would only result in conflict between Germany and the rest of the world.
He is also noted for being "one of the first socialists to deal sympathetically with the issue of homosexuality."
Read more about this topic: Eduard Bernstein
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