its own detriment, and the forces and elements which are to work its destruction and supplant it are maturing rapidly before our very eyes. So does the system which is to take the place of capitalism take definite shape and outline, so that its general form and appearance stand clearly before our vision inscribed: Socialism.
Before proceeding, however, any further with this examination, our attention is called to a question which might interfere with the progress of our inquiry unless answered right here. There is perhaps no question which leads to as much discussion, and as contradictory opinions, since the advent of Revisionism, as the question of the relation between the theory of value and socialism in the Marxian theoretical system. The cleavage of opinion is in the main along the lines of orthodox and revisionist Marxism, the former claiming an intimate relation and interdependence between these parts of the Marxian theory, and the latter denying it. This alignment on the present question is not very strict, however; and absolutely irreconcilable opinions on this subject are held by Marx-critics belonging to the same camp. A glance into the discussion of this subject will again reveal the almost hopeless state of ignorance of the Marxian theory which prevails even among the ablest of Marx-critics.
According to Tugan-Baranowsky[1] (who agrees in this respect with most orthodox Marxists) Marx based his socialism entirely on what he thought to be the laws of capitalistic development resulting from the peculiarities of the law of value which forms its keynote. Oppenheimer and Simkhowitch,[2] however, and a host of others, insist that Marx's theory of value has nothing whatever to do with his socialism.
- ↑ Michael Tugan-Baranowsky, Theoretische Grundlagen des Marxismus. Leipzig, 1905. Der Zusammenbruch der Kapitalistischen Wirtschaftsforschung. In Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik. Vol. 19.
- ↑ Franz Oppenheimer, Das Grundgesetz der Marxschen Gesellschaftslehre. Berlin, 1903. V. G. Simkhowitch, Die Krisis der Sozialdemokratie. In Jahrbücher für Nationaloekonomie und Statistik (1899).
