A Study On Dautsky's Theory Of Social Democracy

Karl Kautsky(1854-1938)was an authoritative Marxist theoretician,who exerted great influence on the development of Marxism and the communist movements worldwide.He was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany(SPD)and the Second International.His academic interests covered philosophy,economics,political science and sociology,which culminated in a multitude of published works and thus led to his international renown.Kautsky was first and foremost a theoretician,who clarified his philosophy through his academic writing.Comparatively,his stint as a politician was short;he served as under-secretary of state in the foreign office in the short-lived SPD-USPD(Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany)revolutionary government.Academic debates abound in terms of Kautsky's thought,constituting a continuum from total acceptance to total rejection.However,several deficiencies can be found in the previous research: Kautsky's thought is seen through political lenses rather than through academic ones;petty details and polarizing differences are given more attention;historical context and comparisons with related thoughts are neglected.In the field of Marxism,Kautsky's thought is either considered as a development of orthodox Marxism or an amalgam of liberalism,Darwinism and Marxism.Some even suggested that Kautsky had given up Marxism and betrayed the proletariats.Although some researchers called for returning Kautsky's thought to its historical milieu and analyzing it more objectively,much political residue is found in the research.In China,Kautsky was first labeled traitor of proletarianism,a Lenin-based evaluation,and then labeled the biggest revisionist in the Second International,an evaluation heavily influenced by the extreme leftism.It was only after the 1980 s that more objective but still unsystematic studies on Kautsky started to emerge.This thesis argues that Kautsky's thought is a development of the orthodox Marxism.Its significance to a deeper understanding of Marxism and to studying the history of the Second International has gradually emerged.This thesis also argues that a better understanding of Kautsky's thought is invaluable to the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the revitalization of the Chinese people.