Book contents
II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
But if not France, then what other state in Europe can compete with the new German Empire?
Certainly not Great Britain. In the first place, England has never been a state in the strict, modern sense of the word, that is, in the sense of military, police, and bureaucratic centralization. Rather, England represents a federation of privileged interests, an autonomous society in which a landed aristocracy predominated at first and a monied aristocracy now predominates along with it, but in which, just like France though in somewhat different forms, the proletariat clearly and threateningly strives for the equalization of economic conditions and political rights.
England's influence on the political affairs of continental Europe has always been great, to be sure, but it was based much more on wealth than on the organization of military force. Today, as everyone knows, it has diminished considerably. A mere thirty years ago, England would not have tolerated with such equanimity the Germans' conquest of the Rhine provinces, or the restoration of Russian predominance on the Black Sea, or the Russians' campaign against Khiva. Such systematic acquiescence on its part demonstrates its unmistakable political bankruptcy, which grows with each passing year. The main reason for that bankruptcy is the antagonism between the world of the common laborers and the world of the exploiting, politically dominant bourgeoisie.
In England, social revolution is much more imminent than people think, and nowhere else will it be as fierce, for nowhere else will it encounter such desperate and well-organized resistance.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Bakunin: Statism and Anarchy , pp. 26 - 60Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990