Neumann’s Marxism coexisted with reformist hopes for constitutional restoration

Evidence

It was a rather modest result. If the development from liberalism via monopoly capitalism to fascism were seen, as Neumann saw it, as a consistent and effective process of transmutation serving to maintain the domination of the private ownership of the means of production, then how could a re-establishment of the good old aspects of liberal constitutionality which had been appropriate under competitive capitalism be conceivable? How could legal theories and legal interpretations which could have been defended as socially progressive be imagined under such a presupposition? Neumann’s book seemed to be saying: there could only be hope if something similar to the liberal constitutional state could be re-created, but with a ruling class which would recoil with horror from the fascist solution. Although he was now thinking in a Marxist fashion at the level of social-theoretical analysis, Neumann remained, like his teacher Laski, a political reformist who set all his hopes on an improvement in the politics of labour movement organizations once constitutional conditions had been re-established. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 934

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Neumann trained under Sinzheimer and Austrian Marxists as a legal reformist — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 921; Neumann urged realizing Weimar’s basic rights rather than abandoning the Republic — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 925; The Horkheimer-Neumann split pitted philosophy-of-history against reformist Marxism (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Formal constitutionalism can obstruct rather than advance revolutionary change #corroborates (0.75) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 104