Riforma o rivoluzione sociale? Il problema della collocazione politica di R. Michels all’interno del movimento socialista - Reform or Social Revolution? The Controversial Issue of Michels’ Political Position within the International Socialist Movement

  • Giorgio Volpe

Abstract

Michels’ political position within the international socialist movement is still a controversial issue. In the literature there are two interpretive trends: the older places Michels’ political thought in the revolutionary trade-unionist thinking; the second considers it as a product of the orthodox socialism. This paper intends to provide a critic interpretation which includes both the linear level of the theoretic analysis and the historical reconstruction. The research, therefore, studies the moments and the places of Michels’ political militancy by the analysis of his political articles and studies about the history of the labor movement and the political sociology. The essay considers also the reports of the Italian and German socialist party’s congress, together with Michels’ correspondence and some interesting autobiographical notes.

Keywords

Robert Michels, Revolutionary trade-unionism, Georges Sorel, Partito socialista italiano, Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Second international

Pubblicato
2012-11-26
Sezione
Saggi e Studi