The Red Polybius: Otto Bauer’s theory of the democratic republic

Abstract

This article reconstructs Austro-Marxist Otto Bauer’s theoretical reflections on the democratic republic. It demonstrates how Bauer proceeds from the irreducible conflict around the exercise of rule as his point of departure, but also pays due attention to the impact existing legal and political forms have on scopes of articulation for antagonistic conflict. He elaborates a cycle of three stages through which the democratic republic passes: proletarian democracy, the people’s republic, and an innovative conceptualization of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a backdrop for the stabilization and defence of democratic institutions. Bauer’s reflections refine central concepts of political Marxism* and relate them to democratic theory. Drawing loosely on Polybius’ cycle of constitutions, Bauer can be viewed as a ‘Red Polybius’. He soberly analyses the different stages of the republic and reveals how they are connected to one another. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that Bauer’s work provides ample resources for theorizing the mutual interrelations and interrelatedness of social conflict and political form.* ‘Political Marxism’ in this sense does not refer to the theoretical current within the Anglophone world, but rather to a Marxism that is political, i.e. that views the production of theory as a means to an end, namely the political transformation of society as a whole.