Multiple choice

According to the author, which of the following is true in context of the passage?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

The bourgeois intelligentsia of the West, like the English Fabians, elevates municipal socialism to a special ‘trend’ precisely because it dreams of social peace, of class conciliation, and seeks to divert public attention away from the fundamental questions of the economic system as a whole, and of the state structure as a whole, to minor questions of local self-government. In the sphere of questions in the first category, the class antagonisms stand out most sharply; that is the sphere which affects the very foundations of the class rule of the bourgeoisie. Hence it is in that sphere that the philistine, reactionary utopia of bringing about socialism piecemeal is particularly hopeless. Attention is diverted to the sphere of minor local questions, being directed not to the question of the class rule of the bourgeoisie, nor to the question of the chief instruments of that rule, but to the question of distributing the crumbs thrown by the rich bourgeoisie for the ‘needs of the population.’ Naturally, since attention is focussed on such questions as the spending of paltry sums (in comparison with the total surplus value and total state expenditure of the bourgeoisie), which the bourgeoisie itself is willing to set aside for public health, or for education (the bourgeoisie must have trained workers able to adapt themselves to a high technical level!), and so on, it is possible, in the sphere of such minor questions, to hold forth about ‘social peace’, about the harmfulness of the class struggle, and so on. What class struggle can there be if the bourgeoisie itself is spending money on the ‘needs of the population’, on public health, on education? What needs is there for a social if it is possible through the local self-governing bodies, gradually, step by step, to extend ‘collective ownership’, and ‘socialistic’ production: the horse tramways, the slaughter-houses etc?
The philistine opportunism of that ‘trend’ lies in the fact that people forget the narrow limits of the so-called ‘municipal socialism’ (in reality, municipal capitalism, as the English Social-Democrats properly point out in their controversies with the Fabians). They forget that so long as the bourgeoisie rules as a class it cannot allow any encroachment, even from the ‘municipal’ point of view, upon the real foundations of its rule; that if the bourgeoisie allows, tolerates, ‘municipal socialism’, it is because the latter does not touch the foundations of its rule, does not interfere with the important sources of its wealth, but extends only to the narrow sphere of local expenditure, which the bourgeoisie itself allows the ‘population’ to manage. It does not need more than a slight acquaintance with ‘municipal socialism’ in the West to know that any attempt on the part of socialist municipalities to go a little beyond the boundaries of their normal, i.e., minor, petty activities, which give no substantial relief to the workers, any attempt to meddle with capital, is invariably vetoed in the most emphatic manner by the central authorities of the bourgeois state.
And it is this fundamental mistake, this petty-bourgeois opportunism of the West-European Fabians, Possibilists, and Bernsteinians that is taken over by our advocates of municipalisation. (Power—Robert Greene)

  1. The bourgeois intelligentsia was opposed to the idea of local self-government as it militated against their philosophy.

  2. The rich bourgeoisie went out of its way to address, without exception, the question of ‘the needs of the population’.

  3. The central authorities of the bourgeois state never missed an opportunity to meddle with the capital.

  4. It was the English Fabians who elevated municipal socialism to a high in order to float the concept of local self-government.

  5. It was a matter of general satisfaction for the people that the bourgeois took care of their basic human needs to offset any possible rancour.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Absolutely true as the bourgeois intelligentsia has merely followed what the English Fabians have long believed and practised. This is the correct answer.