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Karl Kautsky on Democracy and Republicanism

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Published Oct 2019

Karl Kautsky

Author: Karl Kautsky
Editor / Translator: Ben Lewis
Once deemed ‘the pope of Marxism’, 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 gradually consigned to near oblivion. 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. It 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.Listen to Ben Lewis discuss the book on [this podcast] by LINKSE HOBBY.

Biographical Note

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).

Readership

All interested in democratic and republican thought, the history of Marxism, referenda and elections, and the nature of the French Third Republic.

Table of Contents

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