Thus came the Social Democracy about. The new Mountain,
the result of this combination, contained, with the exception of some
figures from the working class and some Socialist sectarians, the
identical elements of the old Mountain, only numerically stronger. In
the course of events it had, however, changed, together with the class
that it represented. The peculiar character of the Social Democracy is
summed up in this that democratic-republican institutions are
demanded as the means, not to remove the two extremes--Capital and
Wage-slavery--, but in order to weaken their antagonism and transform
them into a harmonious whole. However different the methods may be that
are proposed for the accomplishment of this object, however much the
object itself may be festooned with more or less revolutionary fancies,
the substance remains the same. This substance is the transformation
of society upon democratic lines, but a transformation within the
boundaries of the small traders' class. No one must run away with
the narrow notion that the small traders' class means on principle to
enforce a selfish class interest.
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