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.
