Horkheimer censored democratic language from the student study for fear of funders

Evidence

The word revolution', probably under your influence, has been replaced by the development of formal democracy into material democracy, of liberal democracy into social democracy’; but, so far as the imagination of the average reader is concerned, it will hardly be possible to realize the potential' that is supposed to become politically effective in this process by democratic means. How is a people which is being held in the shackles of bourgeois society by a liberal constitution’ to change into the so-called political society for which, according to H., it is `more than ripe’, other than by violence? It is simply not possible to have admissions of this sort in the research report of an Institute that exists on the public funds of this shackling society. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2355

Categorization

• XREF: A concrete instance of the Institute’s institutional self-censorship — parallels the later discussion in Wiggershaus about Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s political caution, and connects to broader theory-of-institutions material on external funding shaping conclusions. — connects to: Horkheimer blocked publication of the Institute’s student politics study — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2356; Horkheimer censored explicit political language in Institute publications — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 865; The Frankfurt School deliberately censored Marxist terminology to appease American Jewish sponsors — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1551 (+7 more)
• DEFINE: Shows the Institute’s working definition of ‘material’ vs ‘formal’ democracy as a politically loaded distinction they otherwise preferred to eviscerate.

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer’s postwar conservatism led him to suppress politically engaged student research #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2356
• The Institute strategically self-censored Marxist vocabulary for American funders #expands (0.82)
• Zeitschrift editors censored Adorno’s Marxian vocabulary to avoid appearing doctrinaire #exemplifies (0.78) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 355
• Horkheimer suppressed Fromm’s worker study as both too Marxist and not Marxist enough #corroborates (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 195
• Horkheimer suppressed German republication of Dialectic of Enlightenment despite student demand. #corroborates (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2635