Karl Kautsky on Democracy and Republicanism / / Karl Kautsky ; Edited by Ben Lewis.

• Superior document: Historical Materialism Book Series ; 196
• VerfasserIn: Kautsky, Karl,
• TeilnehmendeR: Lewis, Ben,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : BRILL,, 2019.
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Historical Materialism Book Series ; 196.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (366 pages).

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.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Karl Kautsky’s Democratic Republicanism -- Karl Kautsky, Parliamentarism and Democracy (1893/1911) -- Preface to the First Edition -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Introduction -- Direct Legislation in Prehistory -- Direct Legislation in Civilisation -- Urban Democracy in Antiquity -- The Representative System -- Monarchical and Parliamentary Absolutism -- Modern Democracy -- Rittinghausen’s Proposal -- Drafting Laws -- Implementing Laws -- Jurisprudence and the Press -- Parliamentarism and the Parties in England -- Parliamentarism and the Working Classes -- Direct Legislation by the People and the Class Struggle -- Karl Kautsky, The Republic and Social Democracy in France (1905) -- Clarifying the Dispute -- The American Republic -- The First Republic -- The Second Republic and the Socialists -- The Second Empire and the Paris Commune -- The Constitution of the Third Republic -- The Bourgeois Republicans at Work -- Socialism in the Third Republic -- Karl Kautsky, The Development of a Marxist (1924) -- Back Matter -- Synoptic Overview of the Drafts of the Erfurt Programme (1891) -- Bibliography -- Index.