Part I: Socialism Past and Present: Historical and Contemporary Disputes Within Socialism.
2. Prologue
3. Socialism as a Social-Scientific Theory of Development
4. The Natural Rights Justification of Socialism
5. The Significance of Theories of Value for Scientific Socialism
6. The Nature of Society in Advanced Capitalism
7. Socialism and the Theory of Class Struggle
8. Theory of the State and Socialism
9. Socialism as Democracy and Parliamentarism
10.The Bolshevist Perversion of Socialism
11. The Nearest Possible Realisations of Socialism
Part II: Writings on Ideology and Socialist Theory
12. The Social Doctrine of Anarchism
13. Social Liberalism or Collectivism?
14. How is Scientific Socialism Possible?
15. What is Socialism?
16. The Socialisation of Enterprises: Guiding Principles for a Theory of Socialisation
Part III: Selected Articles
17. A Piece of Materialist Propaganda-Writing
18. Right and Justice
19. Natural Science Contra Social Science
20. Morality and Politics
21. Proudhon as a Politician and Publicist
22. Two Political Programmatic Symphonies
23. Idealism, the Theory of Struggle, and Science.
24. The Core of the Dispute
25. On the German Worker Past and Present
26. The Latest Prognosis of Social Revolution.
27. Parties and Classes
28. Socialism and Liberalism in the Prussian Landtag Elections
29. On the Value of Parliamentarism
30. Class and Class Struggle
31. On Class Struggle
32. Democracy in Social Democracy
33. Class Struggle and Cultural Progress
34. The Intellectuals in the Reichstag Elections
35. Science, Value-Judgments, and the Party
36. What is Socialisation?
37. Class Struggle and Coalition Politics
38. Limits to the Formal Implementation of Democracy.
39. Idea and Interest in History
40. Who and What are Social Fascists?
Marius S. Ostrowski is Examination Fellow in Politics at All Souls College, University of Oxford, UK, and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. He has written Eduard Bernstein on Social Democracy and International Politics (2018), Eduard Bernstein on the German Revolution (2019), and Left Unity: Manifesto for a Progressive Alliance (2020).
In this illuminating collection, Marius Ostrowski brings together essays by Eduard Bernstein addressing the question of “what is socialism”. At a time of renewed reflection on the value of social democracy, engaging with the thought of one of its founding fathers will be immeasurably valuable for both supporters and critics.
—Professor Lea Ypi, London School of Economics, UK
During his long life, Eduard Bernstein made a significant contribution to the development of the European left. In this splendid volume, Marius Ostrowski presents his writing in its full richness and complexity, with lucid translations of some of Bernstein’s major theoretical works from a period of great turmoil for social democracy.
— Dr Martin O’Neill, University of York, UK
This book presents six major texts and selected shorter writings by the social-democratic thinker and politician Eduard Bernstein, translated into English for the first time: Socialism Past and Present; The Social Doctrine of Anarchism; Social Liberalism or Collectivism?; How is Scientific Socialism Possible?; What is Socialism?; The Socialisation of Enterprises; and articles from the periodicals Neue Zeit and Sozialistische Monatshefte alongside several unpublished manuscripts. Written over the period 1893 to 1931, these works focus on socialism as an ideology, and trace debates about ethics, social science, and class struggle that preoccupied the early-20th-century socialist movement. Bernstein carefully demarcates the boundaries between socialism and its ideological rivals, contrasting its communitarian aspirations with individualistic liberalism and anarchism, and its adherence to democratic methods with the totalitarian violence of communism and fascism. He revisits the intellectual canon of socialist thought, recentring contributions by Ferdinand Lassalle, Karl Rodbertus, and other neglected figures alongside those of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Urging socialists to seize the opportunities afforded by their growing political representation, Bernstein addresses the strategies needed to achieve progressive policy reforms, including the prospects for realising socialism with the foundation of the Weimar Republic.
Marius S. Ostrowski is Examination Fellow in Politics at All Souls College, University of Oxford, UK, and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. He has written Eduard Bernstein on Social Democracy and International Politics (2018), Eduard Bernstein on the German Revolution (2019), and Left Unity: Manifesto for a Progressive Alliance (2020).