Abstract

In this collection of essays, Sweezy and Bettelheim are distinguished in style: Sweezy writing journalistically, with much quotation from newspaper-writers and reference to real events; Bettelheim staying resolutely on an abstract plane, his “scientifico-philosophical” approach to the “depths” beneath the “surface” emphasized by his “use” of inverted commas. Nonetheless they find themselves, at the conclusion of their theoretical labors, sharing roughly the same position. This position is, in brief, the following:

Socialism means the power of the proletariat—the working class—over the social decision-making. The working class, however, molded by capitalist society, is incapable of developing concepts and forms of organization permitting it to take and hold this power.