Reform or Revolution, Reform or Revolution

2021 Reprint of the 1937 Edition. Reform or Revolution is the classic statement of the position of scientific socialism on the questions of capitalist development, 'historical necessity, ' social reforms, the State, democracy and the character of the proletarian revolution. It was written in criticism of the ideas presented by Eduard Bernstein, a proponent of more gradual change or "reform" as opposed to orthodox theories of revolution as espoused by Marx and Luxembourg. At the age of twenty-seven, she had established herself as a major figure in the Second International by offering one of the most comprehensive criticisms of Bernstein's revisionist call to prioritize the method of reform over that of revolution. A close friend and collaborator of Engels, a Marxist of impeccable credentials but also a pioneering advocate of gay rights, Bernstein was also the first to articulate a non revolutionary path to socialism in what is widely considered the founding text of modern social democracy: The Preconditions of Socialism and the Tasks of Social Democracy (1899). At stake in Bernstein's dilemma, she argued, was not just a tactical choice, a mere discussion about this or that method of struggle; it was the "very existence of the Social Democratic movement" as a distinctive force in the struggle against capitalism.