Lessons of Socialist Reformisms: Revisiting the German, Swedish, and French Social Democracies

In hopes of attaining socialism through parliamentary and nonrevolutionary strategies, social democratic parties initially inspired by a Marxian socialist view of development and class struggle gradually distanced themselves from socialism and embraced liberal and even neo-liberal perspectives. For the proponents of a revolutionary rapturous strategy, the cause of this huge divergence was simply the takeover of socialist movements by “opportunists” and “renegades.” But the reasons were far more complicated, having to do with the continued expansion of capitalism and its global dominance, the unceasing weakness of the working class, the rise of new middle classes, and the inability of reformist agents to adopt the right policies in their confrontations with capital. Reviewing reformist theories and important cases of socialist reformist movements, this article discusses the diverse obstacles that social democratic parties faced, and their reactive policies to changing circumstances. It argues that while in the long process of the transition from capitalism, radical socialist reformism and not a revolutionary rapturous strategy was the only possible option for the socialists, in face of enormous objective and subjective obstacles, the reactive and defeatist policies of the socialist agents failed to attract the support of the working class, the rising middle class, and identitarian groups, and to find the proper strategy for advancing towards a post-capitalist society.