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Kautsky, Karl

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Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

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Introduction

Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) was a leading theoretician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Salvadori 1979; Steenson 1978; Lewis 2019). Kautsky published tens of books and hundreds of articles on economic theory as well and on social history and actual politics. For 34 years, he was the editor-in-chief of Die Neue Zeit, the theoretical organ of the German Social Democratic Party SDP, the most influential Party of the Second International.

In 1890, Kautsky was commissioned to draft the party program of the Party, known as the Erfurt Program. The program acted as a model for many Social Democratic parties. Kautsky’s extensive commentary on the program (1906a (1892)), known in English as the Class Struggle (1910), became the Catechism of Socialism together with his work Karl Marx’s oekonomische Lehren (1906b (1887), The Economic Doctrines of Karl Marx (1936). To many, Kautsky represented genuine Marxism. He edited and published Marx’s posthumous works, including the first...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Jukka Gronow

Authors
  1. Jukka Gronow
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Correspondence to Jukka Gronow .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Regents Professor of the University, System of Maryland and Director of the University of Baltimore Center for International and Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Professor for Legal and Social Philosophy, Department of Legal Theory International and European Law, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Law, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Gianfrancesco Zanetti

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Gronow, J. (2023). Kautsky, Karl. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6519-1_998

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