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Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) was the leading theoretician of the German Social Democratic Party and one of the most prominent public intellectuals of his time. However, during the twentieth century a constellation of historical factors ensured that his ideas were either gradually consigned to near oblivion or downright reviled. Not only has his political thought been dismissed in non-Marxist historical and political discourse, but his ideas are equally discredited in Marxist circles.
This book aims to rekindle interest in Kautsky's ideas by exploring his democratic-republican understanding of state and society. These essential works from different points in his career demonstrates how Kautsky's republican thought was positively influenced by Marx and Engels—especially in relation to the lessons they drew from the experience of the Paris Commune.
“Lewis’s book and his continuing work on translating texts of the Second International are of crucial help in rediscovering the continuity between Marx and Engels, the Second International and the Bolsheviks. Only if we go back and understand what these ‘old’ thinkers were saying and doing can we put the revolutionary strategy of actually practised ‘Leninism’ to the test and investigate what went wrong, what went right, and how we can use it as socialist revolutionaries.”
—Andreas Chari, rs21
“At a moment when there is an increasing interest in Kautsky across some parts of the Left, this volume is a welcome addition to our understanding of his democratic and republican thought, as well as his divergence from Bolshevism in his own words.”
—Rida Vaquas, Prometheus
Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) was the leading theoretician of the German Social Democratic Party and one of the most prominent public intellectuals of his time.
Ben Lewis is a tutor and Wolfson Scholar PhD candidate in Germanic Studies at the University of Sheffield. His publications include Clara Zetkin: Letters and Writings (Merlin Press, 2015); Karl Kautsky on Colonialism (November Publications, 2013); and Martov and Zinoviev: Head-to-Head in Halle (November Publications, 2011).
Preface Acknowledgements
Introduction: Karl Kautsky's Democratic Republicanism
Part 1 Karl Kautsky, Parliamentarism and Democracy (1893)
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction
1 Direct Legislation in Prehistory
2 Direct Legislation in Civilisation
3 Urban Democracy in Antiquity
4 The Representative System
5 Monarchical and Parliamentary Absolutism
6 Modern Democracy
7 Rittinghausen's Proposal
8 Drafting Laws
9 Implementing Laws
10 Jurisprudence and the Press
11 Parliamentarism and the Parties in England
12 Parliamentarism and the Working Classes
13 Direct Legislation by the People and the Class Struggle
Part 2 Karl Kautsky, The Republic and Social Democracy in France (1905)
1 Clarifying the Dispute
2 The American Republic
3 The First Republic
4 The Second Republic and the Socialists
5 The Second Empire and the Paris Commune
6 The Constitution of the Third Republic
7 The Bourgeois Republicans at Work
8 Socialism in the Third Republic
Part 3 Karl Kautsky, The Development of a Marxist (1924)
Appendix: Synoptic Overview of the Drafts of the Erfurt Programme (1891) Bibliography Index