170 Kautsky, Karl
published in 1793, Kant discussed how a civil state is
justified on the basis of a SOCIAL CONTRACT that
expresses the moral conception of humanity as an end
in itself. In a just civil government, the rights of
humanity are secured, establishing a reciprocal obliga-
tion on the part of each citizen to respect the RIGHTSof
all others. Thus, some limitations on FREEDOMdo exist
through the RULE OF LAWand the state’s right to punish,
but these limitations are legitimate because they actu-
ally increase freedom by prohibiting (and redressing)
the types of wrongs characteristic of the lawless STATE
OF NATURE. For Kant, then, the value of legitimate gov-
ernment is that it guarantees our NATURAL RIGHTSto
freedom and equality and provides us a foundation
from which to acquire other rights. Kant referred to his
ideal of the perfect moral community, in which
autonomous persons legislate together according to
the categorical imperative, as the “Kingdom of Ends.”
In The Metaphysics of Morals(1797), Kant argued that
the Kingdom of Ends establishes a sphere of public
JUSTICE within which all persons are obligated to
respect everyone else’s rights.
Kant also argued that, in matters of international
justice, the real relations between nations is analogous
to the hypothetical relations between individuals in
the state of nature. Just as public justice must be estab-
lished in the single, domestic state to secure each indi-
vidual’s right to freedom within that state, so too
public justice must be established on a global scale to
secure the rights of all humanity. Although he
expressed concerns regarding the formation of a world
government, Kant proposed a voluntary federation of
states, or a “league of nations,” whose common law
would preserve equality and mutual respect among
nations. Ultimately, Kant suggested in Perpetual Peace
(1795) that only such a world federation would bring
an end to war and lead to the realization of justice and
the guarantee of CIVIL LIBERTY.
Further Reading
Shell, S. M. The Rights of Reason: A Study of Kant’s Philosophy
and Politics.Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
Kautsky, Karl (1854–1938) German Marxist
theorist and social democrat
Kautsky’s SOCIALIST theory represented the gradual
(rather than sudden) and peaceful (rather than violent
revolution) wing of the LEFTISTpolitical thought in the
20th century. This moderate MARXISM saw socialism
evolving out of CAPITALISM through DEMOCRATIC
processes, as opposed to working class revolution led
by a radical militant COMMUNISTParty (contrast V. I.
LENIN). Such gradual socialism through parliamentary
means came to be associated with the social demo-
cratic political parties in Europe (especially Germany,
France, Italy, and the Labour Party in Britain). This
caused the more militant communist revolutionaries to
accuse “Kautskyites” of compromise and betrayal of
the proletarian cause. To radicals like Lenin, such legal
socialism was middle-class, intellectual, bourgeois
compromise and would never lead to true commu-
nism. At worst, other Marxists accused Kautsky’s social
democrats of being allied with the capitalist oppres-
sors, weakening the working class cause, and being
tools of the IMPERIALISTS. Similarly, Kautsky’s belief that
socialism would lead to a more democratic govern-
ment (rather than the DICTATORSHIPof the proletariat)
was ridiculed by more radical communists as a weak
compromise with the system.
In a more-orthodox Marxist manner, Kautsky saw
the economic CLASS of German peasants as having
social INTERESTS(in landed property, agriculture, small-
scale production) contrary to the industrial working
class (compare MAO TSE-TUNG, CHINESE POLITICAL
THOUGHT). He also developed a theory of ultraimperial-
ism (stabilizing capitalist economics and preventing
war through monopolies and cartels) that conflicted
with Lenin’s theory of imperialism.
Kautsky’s emphasis on socialist consciousness
developed by communist intellectuals (like himself)
diminished the role of the working class in revolution-
ary politics and furthered a certain passivity that Lenin
also denounced. Kautsky, then, represents a kind of
tame, domesticated Marxism, seen as ineffective by his
more radical colleagues, but realistic by his fellow
social democrats.Further Reading
Salvadori, M. Kautsky and the Socialist Revolution.London: NLB,
1979.Kennedy, John F. (1917–1963) President of the
United States
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the
United States, was the youngest ever elected to the
presidency and the first of the Roman CATHOLICfaith.