Revisionism

Revisionism may refer to:

Revisionism (Marxism)

Within the Marxist movement, the word revisionism is used to refer to various ideas, principles and theories that are based on a significant revision of fundamental Marxist premises. The term is most often used by those Marxists who believe that such revisions are unwarranted and represent a "watering down" or abandonment of Marxism. As such, revisionism often carries pejorative connotations and the term has been used by many different factions. Those identified as "revisionists" have been criticized by "orthodox" Marxism for: putting forward a peaceful road to socialism; for the Trotskyite view of permanent revolution; for placing emphasis on the role of democracy in achieving socialism; as well for as joining Kautsky and his idea of state socialism.

History

The term "revisionism" has been used in a number of contexts to refer to different revisions (or claimed revisions) of Marxist theory.

19th Century

In the late 19th century, revisionism was used to describe democratic socialist writers such as Eduard Bernstein and Jean Jaurès, who sought to revise Karl Marx's ideas about the transition to socialism and claimed that a revolution through force was not necessary to achieve a socialist society. The views of Bernstein and Jaurès gave rise to reformist theory, which asserts that socialism can be achieved through gradual peaceful reforms from within a capitalist system.