Reformism

Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement.[1] Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eventually lead to fundamental changes in a society’s political and economic systems. Reformism as a political tendency and hypothesis of social change grew out of opposition to revolutionary socialism, which contends that revolutionary upheaval is a necessary precondition for the structural changes necessary to transform a capitalist system to a qualitatively different socialist economic system.

As a doctrine, reformism is distinguished from the act of pragmatic reform: pragmatic reform aims to safeguard and permeate the status quo by preventing fundamental structural changes to it, whereas reformism posits that an accumulation of reforms can eventually lead to the emergence of entirely different economic and political systems than those of present-day capitalism and democracy.[2]

Overview

There are two types of reformism. One has no intention of bringing about socialism or fundamental economic change to society and is used to oppose such structural changes. The other is based on the assumption that while reforms are not socialist in themselves, they can help rally supporters to the cause of revolution by popularizing the cause of socialism to the working class. [3]

The debate on the ability for social democratic reformism to lead to a socialist transformation of society is over a century old.

Reformism is criticized for being paradoxical: it seeks to overcome the existing economic system of capitalism, but it tries to improve the conditions of capitalism thereby making it appear more tolerable to society. According to Rosa Luxemburg, under reformism, "(capitalism) is not overthrown, but is on the contrary strengthened by the development of social reforms."[4] In a similar vein, Stan Parker of the Socialist Party of Great Britain argues that reforms are a diversion of energy for socialists and are limited because they must adhere to the logic of capitalism.[5]

The French social theorist Andre Gorz criticized reformism by advocating a third alternative to reformism and social revolution that he called "non-reformist reforms", specifically focused on structural changes to capitalism, as opposed to reforms for improve living conditions within capitalism or to prop it up through economic interventions.[6]

History

In 1875 German Social Democratic Party (SPD) adopted a Gotha Program that proposed "every lawful means" on a way to a "socialist society" and was criticized by Karl Marx who considered the communist revolution a required step. One of the delegates to the SPD congress, Eduard Bernstein, expanded on the concept, proposing evolutionary socialism. Bernstein was a leading social democrat in Germany. Reformism was quickly targeted by revolutionary socialists, with Rosa Luxemburg condemning Bernstein's Evolutionary Socialism in her 1900 essay Reform or Revolution?.[7] While Luxemburg died in the German Revolution, the reformists soon found themselves contending with the Bolsheviks and their satellite communist parties for the support of intellectuals and the working class.

In 1959, the Godesberg Program (signed at a party convention in the West German capital of Bad Godesberg) marked the shift of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from a Marxist program espousing an end to capitalism to a reformist one focused on social reform.

After Joseph Stalin consolidated power in the Soviet Union, the Comintern launched a campaign against the Reformist movement by denouncing them as "social fascists". According to The God that Failed by Arthur Koestler, a former member of the Communist Party of Germany, the largest communist party in Western Europe in the Interwar period, communists, aligned with the Soviet Union, continued to consider the "social fascist" Social Democratic Party of Germany to be the real enemy in Germany, even after the Nazi Party had gotten into power.[8]

In modern times, reformists are seen as centre-left. Some social democratic parties, such as the Canadian New Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, are still considered to be reformist.[9]

Reformism in the British Labour Party

The term was applied to elements within the British Labour Party in the 1950s and subsequently, on the party's right. Anthony Crosland wrote The Future of Socialism (1956) as a personal manifesto arguing for a reformulation of the term. For Crosland, the relevance of nationalization (or public ownership) for socialists was much reduced as a consequence of contemporary full employment, Keynesian management of the economy and reduced capitalist exploitation. In 1960, after the third successive defeat of his party in the 1959 General Election Hugh Gaitskell attempted to reformulate the original wording of Clause IV in the party's constitution, but proved unsuccessful.

Some of the younger followers of Gaitskell, principally Roy Jenkins, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams left the Labour Party in 1981 to found the Social Democratic Party, but the central objective of the Gaitskellites was eventually achieved by Tony Blair in his successful attempt to rewrite Clause IV in 1995.

The use of the term is distinguished from the gradualism associated with Fabianism (the ideology of the Fabian Society), which itself should not be seen as being in parallel with the revisionism associated with Bernstein and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, as originally the Fabians had explicitly rejected Marxism.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Collins English Dictionary. "Reformism". HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 8 August 2017. a doctrine or movement advocating reform, esp political or religious reform, rather than abolition.
  2. ↑ Paul Blackledge (2013). "Left reformism, the state and the problem of socialist politics today and Jesus followers". International Socialist Journal. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  3. ↑ Stan Parker (March 2002). "Reformism - or socialism?". Socialist Standard. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  4. ↑ Duncan Hallas (1973). "Do We Support Reformist Demands?". Controversy: Do we support reformist demands?. International Socialism. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Stan Parker (March 2002). "Reformism - or socialism?". Socialist Standard. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Lois Clifton (November 2011). "Do we need reform of revolution?". Socialist Review. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Rosa Luxemburg. Reform or Revolution (1900)
  8. ↑ Koestler, Arthur. The God That Failed. Edited by Richard Crossman. Bantam Matrix, Tenth Edition. pp 41-42.
  9. ↑ Dowson, Ross. "The Socialist Vanguard and the New Democratic Party". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  • Reform or Revolution? by Rosa Luxemburg (1990).
  • Blackledge, Paul (2013). "Left reformism, the state and the problem of socialist politics today". International Socialism 139. London.
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