POL 3102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Existentialism, Orthodox Marxism, Eduard Bernstein

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL 3102
• Professor: Wolfgang Koerner

Document Summary

By 1883 (cid:523)marx"s death(cid:524), his ideas have already become a field of recognized. That"s not to say that other theorists of his day appreciated his theory political thought. Immediately afterwards, there was a debate between his followers over whether the revolution had to be violent or peaceful. But by 1917, with the emergence of various revolutions and the first world war, people began identifying more with their nation state. Was the proletariat ready for the revolution. Kawatski (german theorist) believed that marxism was a coherent system and that one just needed to wait for the revolution. Edward bernstein (leader of the social democratic party) Believed that what was important was to educate and politically organize the working class in order to attain marxist goals through peaceful means. I. e. dominating politics and using political means to bring about the revolution. Argued that this peaceful course was preferred, that a violent revolution would cause more harm than good.