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Impossibilism is aMarxist theory that stresses the limited value of political, economic, and social reforms undercapitalism. As adoctrine, impossibilism views the pursuit of such reforms as counterproductive to the goal of achievingsocialism as they stabilize, and therefore strengthen, support for capitalism. Impossibilism holds that reforms to capitalism are irrelevant or outright counter-productive to the goal of achieving socialism and should not be a major focus of socialist politics.[1]
Impossibilists insist that socialists should primarily or solely focus on structural changes (sometimes termed "revolutionary changes") to society as opposed to advancing social reforms. Impossibilists argue that spontaneous revolutionary action is the only viable method of instituting the structural changes necessary for the construction of socialism; impossibilism is thus held in contrast toreformist socialist parties that aim to rally support for socialism through the implementation of popular social reforms (such as awelfare state).[2][3] It is also held in contrast to those who believe that socialism can emerge through gradual economic reforms implemented by an electedsocial democratic political party.
Impossibilism is the opposite of "possibilism" and "immediatism". Possibilism and immediatism are based on agradualist path to socialism and a desire on the part of socialists to help ameliorate the social illsimmediately through practical programs implemented by existing institutions includinglabor unions and electoral politics, thereby de-emphasizing the ultimate objective of building a socialist economy. This position is justified by the fact that socialists who embraced possibilism sounded and acted little different from non-socialist reformers in practice.[4][2]
Impossibilist movements are also associated withanti-Leninism in their opposition to bothvanguardism anddemocratic centralism.
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The concept of impossibilism—though not the specific term—was introduced and heavily influenced by American MarxisttheoreticianDaniel De Leon on the basis oftheory that De Leon generated before his interest insyndicalism began. It came to be focused especially on the question of whether socialists should take part in government and pursue policy reforms that benefited the working-class under capitalism.
At theParis Congress of the Second International in 1900, those who favored entry into government with all the implied compromises called themselves "Possibilists" while those who opposed them (those aroundJules Guesde) characterized them as political "Opportunists". Conversely, therevolutionary socialists who opposed ameliorative reforms and participation in existing governments were called "Impossibilists" by their detractors because they allegedly sought the impossible by refusing to partake in the governing of capitalism.[2]
While not usually described as an impossibilist,Rosa Luxemburg opposed both reformism andvanguardism, taking the more classical Marxist perspective that revolution would be a spontaneous reaction to underlying material changes in the productive forces of society. According to Luxemburg, "[political and juridical relations of capitalism] is not overthrown, but is on the contrary strengthened and consolidated by the development of social reforms and the course of democracy.".[5][6]
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Karl Marx famously critiqued reformism and immediatist/possibilist goals advocated by modernsocial democrats in hisAddress of the Central Committee to the Communist League (1850). Specifically, he argued that measures designed to increase wages, improve working conditions and provide welfare payments would be used to dissuade the working class away from socialism and the revolutionary consciousness he believed was necessary to achieve a socialist economy and would thus be a threat to genuine structural changes to society by making the conditions of workers in capitalism more tolerable through reform and welfare schemes.[3]
However, the democratic petty bourgeois want better wages and security for the workers, and hope to achieve this by an extension of state employment and by welfare measures; in short, they hope to bribe the workers with a more or less disguised form of alms and to break their revolutionary strength by temporarily rendering their situation tolerable.
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