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Kautsky makes much of the capitalists' present fear of the working classes, though in his opinion this fear makes not only for "concessions" but also for reactions, as in the world-wide revival of imperialism. Foreign conquests, he believes, are the only alternative the governing classes are able to offer to the glowing promises of the Socialists.
And the immediate interest of the Liberals and of the Social-Democrats is the same: 'the transformation of Germany from a bureaucratic feudal state into a constitutional, parliamentary, Liberal, and industrial State." Kautsky, however, combats the proposed alliance, from the standpoint of the Social-Democratic Party, along three different lines.
Recently Kautsky wrote that the Socialist Party, besides occupying itself with the interests of the manual laborers, "must also concern itself with all social questions, but that its attitude on these questions is determined by the interests of the manual laborers."
"But the weightiest condition precedent is the lack of an overwhelmingly centralized governmental power, standing independently against the people's representatives." The first condition mentioned I have discussed in the previous chapter; the second indicates that Kautsky, speaking for many German Socialists, for the present at least, puts party above democracy.
Or to discover the writings of such a man as Karl Kautsky, the intellectual leader of the modern movement in Germany; such books as "The Social Revolution", and "The Road to Power" in which one seemed to see a giant of the mind, standing in a death-duel with those forces of night and destruction that still made of the fair earth a hell!
The chief Socialist argument against any political alliance with capitalist parties is, however, of a more general character. Referring to the elections of 1912, Kautsky said:
Jaurès, "Studies in Socialism." Kautsky, "The Road to Power," p. 101. Kautsky, "The Social Revolution," p. 66. Kautsky, "The Social Revolution," pp. 66-67. Kautsky, International Socialist Review, 1910. Die Neue Zeit, Sept. 11, 1911. Since then their influence has rapidly receded.
Kautsky himself now admits that there seems to be a revival of genuine capitalistic Liberalism in Germany, which may lead the Liberal parties to become more and more radical and even ultimately to democratize that country with the powerful aid, of course, of the Social-Democrats. Kautsky asserts cautiously that this denotes a possible revolution in German Liberalism.
Kautsky looks forward to more than one great conflict, in which other means will have to be employed, as does also his Socialist critic and opponent, Jaurès. But for the present all these men are occupying themselves with politics. Even those Socialists who are most skeptical of the revolutionary possibilities of political action by no means turn their back upon it.
Kautsky expresses the prevailing Socialist view when he says that the principle of equality, if distinguished from mere artificial leveling, will play a certain rôle in a Socialist society.
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