Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

A term which was introduced into Marxist thought at the end of the nineteenth century to refer to critical reassessments and reformulations of Marx's ideas, and in particular those concerning the development of capitalism and the nature of a transition to socialism. It gained wide currency in the revisionist debate initiated by Eduard Bernstein's articles (written from 1896–8), later expanded into a book (1899), on the problems of socialism, in which he attempted ‘to become clear just where Marx is right and where he is wrong’. The main targets of Bernstein's criticism were the ‘economic collapse’ theory of the end of capitalism, and the idea of an increasing polarization of society between bourgeoisie and proletariat, accompanied by more intense class conflict. Against these doctrines, which had become part of Marxist orthodoxy, he argued that alongside the concentration of capital in large corporations there was a growth of new small and medium-sized businesses, more widespread property ownership, a rise in the general level of living, an increase in the numbers of the middle class, the emergence of a more complex and differentiated system of stratification in capitalist society and a diminution in the scale and intensity of economic crises. In the course of this debate, revisionism became identified with R eformism and the abandonment of revolutionary aims, or even of any strong ... log in or subscribe to read full text