The Marxist Conception of the State: A Contribution to the Differentiation of the Sociological and the Juristic Method

258 Pages·2019·3.015 MB·English

by  Max Adler

TheMarxistConceptionoftheState
Historical Materialism
Book Series
EditorialBoard
SébastienBudgen(Paris)
DavidBroder(Rome)
SteveEdwards(London)
JuanGrigera(London)
MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam)
PeterThomas(London)
volume 192
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm
The Marxist Conception
of the State
AContributiontotheDifferentiationof theSociological
andtheJuristicMethod
By
MaxAdler
EditedandwithaPrefaceby
MarkE.Blum
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Contents
Preface vii
MarkE.Blum
Foreword 1
1 PoliticsandSociology 6
2 TheSociologicalUnityofStateandSociety 17
3 TheDevelopmentoftheConceptofSociety 22
4 TheFurtherDevelopmentoftheConceptofSocietybyMarx 32
5 TheFormalLogicofLawinKelsen 43
6 WhatIsEssentialinMarx’sConceptoftheState 50
7 WhatIsaClass? 60
8 ClassandParty 76
9 PoliticalandSocialDemocracy 83
10 DemocracyandFreedom 95
11 RevolutionorEvolution? 105
12 DemocracyandItsOrganisation 121
13 Dictatorship 136
14 GovernmentandAdministration 149
15 ExcursusonAnarchism 159
1 TheDenialofForce,Law,andAuthority 159
2 TheLegalOrderandtheConventionalOrder 171
3 TheRealDifferencebetweenAnarchismandSocialism 175
4 SocialismandIndividualism 183
vi contents
16 ApparentAnarchisminMarxism 190
1 TheIdeaofLiberation 190
2 PoliticalandSocialForces.The‘PoliticalState’ 193
3 TheDestructionoftheMachineryoftheState 200
4 TheWitheringAwayoftheState 204
17 The‘Marvel’oftheStatelessOrganisation 205
18 UtopianisminMarxandEngels 214
19 WhyWeAreNotUnderstood! 228
Afterword 231
Bibliography 233
Index 240
Preface
MaxAdler(1873–1937)wasoneoftheAustro-Marxists,agenerationofMarxist
theoristsborninthe1870sand1880swhowerealsopoliticallyengagedmem-
bersoftheAustrianSocialDemocraticPartyfromitspre-WorldWarIdecades
intothe1930s.1HisbookTheMarxistConceptionoftheState[DieStaatsauffas-
sung des Marxismus] was published in 1922, a study that took up the hotly
debatedconceptionofthecharacterandfutureofanynationalstatefromthe
pointof viewof Marxisttheory.Thetimelinessof thisbook,whichconsiders
the idea of a centralised state and possible alternatives for societal control,
wasgeneratedbytheimmediatestateofaffairsinpost-WorldWarIAustria,as
wellasintheothernewlyformedstatesofCentralEuropethathadoncebeen
integratedintotheAustrian-HungarianEmpire.TheTreatyofSt.Germainhad
compelled the Austrians to dissolve the Austrian–Hungarian Empire in 1919,
and how it would be reconstructed in the dwarf section of German-Austria
engagedconstitutionalthoughtfromtheleft-wingsocialiststhroughtheright-
wingChristianSocialparty–whichcomprehendedthepoliticalspectrumin
Austriaintheyears1918throughthelate1920s.Austriahadbeenanationof
78million,comprisingoveradozendifferentnationalities,inaterritorythat
extendedfromwhatistodaysouthernPoland(Galizia)andareasoftheWest-
ernUkraine(Bukowina)intotheBalkans.AftertheTreatyofSt.German,ithad
butsixmillioncitizens,inanareareducedinterritorybyalmost90percent.
ButWorldWarIhadnotonlyledtoeventsthatendedtheAustrianHun-
garian Empire. Germany had been compelled by the Treaty of Versailles to
reconstructitsstateandformofgovernment.And,asanaddedproblemincon-
ceivingandactingtowardstheformingofaMarxist,proletarianstate–which
seemed a possibility in the chaotic political realities of 1918–19 throughout
Central Europe – Russia had become the Soviet Union, and Lenin and the
BolshevikpartychallengedCentralEuropeanMarxistswithadistinctiveinter-
pretationofthedictatorshipoftheproletariat.MaxAdler’sbookontheMarxist
conceptionof thestatewouldchallengetheLeninistunderstandingjustasit
challenged the bourgeois understanding that – even as he was finishing his
text–suppliedthebasisforthestructureoftheAustrianstate.
How would Austria reconstruct its state? As early as November 1918 the
newly-appointedStateChancellor,theAustrianSocial-DemocratKarlRenner,
whowouldbeaguideintheadministrativereconstructionofthenewly-formed
1 SeeBottomoreandGoode(eds.)1978,pp.1–2;andBlum1985,pp.1–2,19–30.
viii preface
Austrian state, appointed a committee to write a new Constitution.2 Renner
namedHansKelsen,bythenconsideredanauthorityinConstitutionalLaw.3
Kelsen’sconstitutionalworkbetween1918and1920transformedAustriastruc-
turallyfromaconstitutionalmonarchyintoademocraticrepublic,whosemod-
elswereamongtheWesternnationsof theUnitedStates,France,andothers,
wherelawwasmadelegislatively,andtheexecutiveauthorityofthePresident
and his administration, along with a judiciary with a Supreme Court, com-
pletedtheauthorityof thestate.Kelsenwaschallengedfromtheleftandthe
right.Ontheleft,in1918and1919,theideaof aCouncilRepublic,generated
fromthegroundupoutofcouncilgroupsthroughoutthenation,thrived.The
ideahadguidedtheestablishmentoftheSovietRepublicatitsonset.MaxAdler
was not only a theorist of this approach,4 but served as the Workers Coun-
cilRepresentativeforthe8thdistrictof Viennain1918–19.5Aswewillseein
Adler’sDieStaatsauffassungdesMarxismus,theextremeleftwingofsocialism
favoured the council idea of a form of state that was generated democratic-
allythroughextremelylocal councils,with representativeschosen torepres-
ent them at the higher district and regional levels, culminating in national
representation. Adler’s stress in his understanding of the council movement
wasontheinterdependenceofassociationsfromthelocalityupwards,which
imparted the idea of what he termed ‘sociation’ [Vergesellschaftung], that is,
societal forms conscious of the interdependence of all individuals and their
cooperative actions that are necessary in order to make a society.This chal-
lengedthepremiseof individualismthatmarkedthedemocraticideaof the
bourgeoisstate–whichwasKelsen’sbasicpremise.Writingofthisdifference
in his monograph DemokratieundRätesystem (1919), Adler characterises the
present need fulfilled by the council idea as one which counters the idea of
bourgeoisindividualism:anindividualismthatactuallytearsapartrealdemo-
cracy,whichcanonlybeachievedthroughinterestsandoutcomesheldincom-
mon.6 Adler will attack the Bolshevist solution as neglecting this ground-up
democraticorganisationofinterdependent,equalvoicesusingthesameargu-
mentthathedeploysagainstthebourgeoisformof thedemocraticrepublic,
thatis,governancebyonlyasmallsegmentof decision-makersfromthetop-
down.7
2 SeeKelsen2011,pp.688–90.
3 Ibid,pp.622–7.
4 SeeAdler1919a.
5 Pfabigan1982,p.161.
6 Adler1919a,p.5.
7 Ibid,pp.24–5.
preface ix
From the right wing, Kelsen was challenged by the desire of many of his
peers and others still in power to incorporate the monarchy back into Aus-
trian law and governance. As the acting President of Austria, Karl Seitz, and
the Chancellor, Karl Renner, were both Austrian Social-Democrats, and the
winningpowerswerehostiletosuchasolution,thisdreamoftheclassicexec-
utiveauthorityofRomanLawwouldnotemergeagaininAustriauntilthe1929
changeintheConstitutionmanagedbythethenChancellorofAustria,Ignaz
Seipel. Kelsen, having completed the moiety of the constitutional structure
of Austriaby1920,turnedtothechief oppositionalideafromtheleft,Marx-
ism,andespeciallyitsideaof astatethatwould‘witheraway’asdemocracy
equalised the populace politically. He wrote the book SozialismusundStaat,
EineUntersuchungderpolitischenTheoriedesMarxismus, which he believed
showedtheessentialnonsenseof theideathatthestatecouldbe‘putaside’
asdemocracytrulyflourished.8Hismajorthesiswasthatanysocietyrequires
the‘compulsion’oflawsthatdemanduniversalcompliance.A‘state’cannever
‘witheraway’.Marxistsocialism,forKelsen,hadaninherentcontradiction,for
therecouldneverbeeconomicequalitywithoutapoliticalstatewhichoversaw
themeansofin-commonproductionandthedistributionoftheproductsand
benefitsofthatactivity.
MaxAdlerhadmanyreasonstorebutthisbook,amongthemhisdeeplyheld
commitmenttoakindof democracythatwasnotbaseduponindividualism
andthatwaspractisedwithaconsciousvisionofinterdependence.Inamore
pragmatic sense, Kelsen had to be rebutted by Austrian Social-Democracy,
for the Marxist idea of the transition from the bourgeois state to a prolet-
arian state, and thence to a true socialist state of full equality, required a
learnedexplanation–onethatcouldcounterthelegalauthorityof aKelsen,
who was deeply respected throughout the young Austrian Republic. Adler’s
book The Marxist Conception of the State [Die Staatsauffassung des Marxis-
mus] is subtitled A Contribution to the Differentiation of the Sociological and
Juristic Method [Ein Beitrag zur Unterscheidung von Soziologischer und Jur-
istischer Methode], a direct reference to Kelsen’s book attacking the Marxist
conception of the state, and indeed to Kelsen’s entire approach to the issue,
which Adler characterises as merely juristic, rather than sociological, think-
ing.
Adlerincludedhisrebuttalof Kelsenasafull-lengthbookintheseriesof
Marx-Studienthatappearedbetween1904and1923infiveseparatevolumes.
TheMarx-Studienweredevotedtothesocialscientificpremisesofthethought
8 Kelsen1920.