15 - Principles of Social Reform

Summary

Introduction

This chapter asks the question: What, for Marx, if anything, could be expected by way of concessions from the bourgeoisie in terms of its willingness and ability to improve working-class well-being? We take as our point of departure Ludwig von Mises's position that “Marx and the school of orthodox Marxism” was more opposed to social reform measures within capitalist organization in later years – viewing them as “reactionary” – than they had been earlier: “From the point of view of this later doctrine Marx and the school of orthodox Marxism reject all policies that pretend to restrain, to regulate and to improve capitalism. Such policies, they declare, are not only futile, but outright harmful. For they rather delay the coming of age of capitalism, its maturity, and thereby also its collapse. They are, therefore, not progressive, but reactionary” (1980 [1950]: 29). The evidence we shall bring points rather to increasing appreciation on Marx's part, as time passed, of the potential for welfare reform within capitalist organization. Indeed, social reform comes to be represented as a necessary characteristic of advanced capitalism. Marx emerges as the “first revisionist.”