Revisionist Socialism

What is it?
Revisionist socialism seeks to reform or tame capitalism rather than abolish it. 
It seeks to reconcile socialism with capitalism. It seeks social justice in the sense of narrowing the economic and social inequalities (to varying degrees) within capitalism through welfare and redistribution. Social democracy is the most obvious example of revisionist socialism. Revisionists are invariably parliamentary, not revolutionary, socialists.

Bernstien
Beginning in the late 1890s a diverse group of so-called revisionist thinkers increasingly questioned the validity of a number of fundamental Marxist theorists. They particularly objected to how rigidly Marx's doctrine was being interpreted by his colleagues in Second International. The foremost theoretical spokesman of the revisionist movement was Eduard Bernstein. Bernstein was a German social democrat whose views on socialism had been influenced by his extended influenced by those in Switzerland and particularly in England, where he became familiar with the views of the early Fabian Society. While his own theory of socialism differed from theirs, Bernstein nevertheless shared many of the Fabian beliefs, including the notion that socialism could be achieved by non-revolutionary means. In a series of articles that first appeared in Die Neue Zeit between 1896 and 1899 and later published in the book Evolutionary Socialism (1899), Bernstein laid the foundation for a revisionist challenge to Marxist ideas that had long been regarded as sacrosanct. Above all, Bernstein's writings were meant as a corrective to some of Marx's fundamental economic suppositions, his theory of surplus value, for example, as well as to some of his a priori claims, such as his prophecy that, by virtue of its inherent contradictions, the cataclysmic end of capitalism was inevitable. From his own observations of general economic and political conditions at this time, for example, Bernstein concluded that class tensions were easing rather than intensifying. Instead of becoming increasingly poorer, Bernstein asserted that available statistical measures indicated that workers were generally enjoying higher living standards. By further arguing that the state should be used as a vehicle for abolishing all class privileges and promoting democratic rights, not just for workers, but for all groups in society, Bernstein also ran afoul of his colleagues in the Marxist-dominated sections of the German Social Democratic Party (known by the German acronym SPD) who maintained that the working classes alone should benefit from the advent of socialism.

Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish Marxist revolutionary as well as the most relevant figure of the left wing of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Many of her writings can be seen as an original and undogmatic reprise, critique, and development of Marxist critical political economy. By 1898 she was widely known for her trenchant and astute criticism of the mounting revisionism. In Social Reform or Revolution? (1899), the pamphlet she wrote against fellow SPD member Eduard Bernstein, Luxemburg strongly objected to the idea that capitalism was entering a phase of social and economic stabilisation, with the end of class polarisation and the attenuation of economic crises. Skeptical about the law of a tendential fall in the profit rate, she nevertheless defended “collapse theory,” but with too generic a reference to the lack of demand for commodities. She also stressed the essential link between money and value, justifying Marx’s notion of abstract labour as a real abstraction that actually comes into being with the unity of production and circulation.

Compare and Contrast the late 19th Century Revisionist Socialism with Revolutionary Socialism
It was in the late 19th Century that a number of political thinkers had the realisation that the capitalist theory on economics was not going away, and it was through capitalism that allowed countries like the UK to develop into economic superpowers. Thus, political thinkers like Eduard Bernstein had the idea to intertwine socialist elements within the capitalist framework. It seeks to reconcile socialism with capitalism. It seeks social justice in the sense of narrowing the economic and social inequalities (to varying degrees) within capitalism through welfare and redistribution. The key emergence from this view was the idea of social democracy, which majority of Scandinavian countries still follow today. One key concept that led to a greater a following for revisionist socialism was that socialist projects like ‘New Harmony’ had failed due to lacking in sound economic policy and it only capitalism that in their eyes offered a secure economic policy. In order to achieve their goals they needed to gain access to the place where economic policy was formed, parliament. Therefore, revisionists are invariably parliamentary, not revolutionary, socialists. In the example of Bernstein he went on to become a key founding figure in the SDP (German Social Democratic Party), in which the party campaigned for social democracy and still does today, the idealism of social democracy also appealed to the German public with the party having 9 of the last 16 prime ministers.

In stark contrast to revisionist socialism is revolutionary socialism which in itself has a number of divides i.e Marxist vs Trotskyist. One common belief that they all share is that capitalism is wrong and a bad economic policy, in the sense that a few become richer whilst the majority become poorer, which led to greater wealth divides. In comparison, Bernstein argued that in-fact peoples living standards had improved and would continue to improve if the capitalism model was followed. In order to gain their vision of a utopian society, they believed that the must abolish capitalism and the best way to achieve this would be to revolt. The way in which Marx predicted a revolt was that the proletariat had to collectively come together to revolt against the current the state. This motion proved difficult for most revolutionary socialists to achieve, and resulted in the movement gaining little traction is terms of results, it was a movement which seemed more talk than action. Moreover, revolutionary socialism gained very little support in the UK, it was the Fabian movement which was considered revisionist that began to make ground in the late 19th Century. One factor that is often to referred to when talking about revolutionary socialism is the membership sizes, and whilst it is true they had large numbers, the movement itself never really progressed with the exception of Russia. The appeal to these groups was perhaps due to of how quickly they proclaimed to achieve a utopian society and it was people who were deeply in poverty that this concept appealed to most.