Revisionists, progressives and traditionalists: programmatic debate in the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party in the years 1924-1938
Abstract
This book deals with the programmatic debates in the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party from 1924 to 1938. The debate is analyzed in three ways: Firstly, its chronological development is given same as the link between the various topics discussed.
The second part researches the structural features of the debate (external context, institutional environment, social profi le of discussants, the structural cleavages like generation confl ict or the relationship between theorists and decison-makers etc.). In the final part the content differences among discussants are analyzed in respect to a few selected issues (the foundation of socialism, the role of intelligence in the socialist party, the relationship to the state, the evolutionary way to socialism).
Marxism is understood as the primary axis of the debate. In relation to it I speak about three intraparty streams, which were repeatedly clashing and which differed not only in the approach to Marxism as such or in solution forms which resulted from it, but also in their generational affiliation and its influence on the programmatic profile of the party as a whole.
In the book the debate as a whole is characterized as very specific (discussion of intellectuals within workers' party) and its significance for the majority of the members is marked by a question mark.