Apparently such a proposition runs counter to Marxist theory.
His influence with the extreme Socialists had already declined, for it was said that his departure from the true Marxist tradition had disintegrated the party.
They pursued a Marxist programme aiming at the socialization of the State, the means of production and consumption: they were opposed to a dictatorship of the proletariat, and were for evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary methods.
This was clearly discerned and exposed by a leading Marxist writer, Kautsky.
This conflict of tendencies continued, and Bebel came to be regarded as the chief exponent of the traditional views of the orthodox Marxist party.
