Philip J. Kain is Professor of Philosophy at Santa Clara University. He has taught at the University of California Santa Cruz and Stanford University, and has authored books on Marx, Hegel, and Nietzsche.

Many people think Marx a totalitarian and Soviet Marxism the predictable outcome of his thought. If one shows them the texts-proves to them that Marx was a radical democrat--they often flip and think him utopian. Totalitarian or utopian--for many those seem to be the alternatives. How might one combat this completely mistaken image?
To establish the connection between Marx and social democracy, philosopher Philip J. Kain argues four main points. First, economy if markets are controlled to eliminate alienation, socialist society for Marx is compatible with a market. Second, markets can be controlled democratically. Third, Marx had a theory of revolution compatible with a democratic electoral movement engaged in by a social democratic party. And fourth, from the late 1860s on, Marx and Engels worked with the German Social Democratic Party of Liebknecht, Bebel, Bernstein, and Kautsky--which eventually became the largest party in Germany and the largest socialist party in the world.
If social democracy is a true expression of Marxism, then Marx cannot be called a totalitarian. There is nothing remotely totalitarian about social democracy. Nor is it utopian. It exists all over Western Europe. Moreover, social democratic parties have always opposed the undemocratic tactics of Soviet Marxism. Drawing on these four points, Kain argues against the depiction of Marx as either utopian or totalitarian, and instead makes a case for Marx as a social democrat, whose strongest legacy is found in Western Europe.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
I. Marx and Marxisms
II. Terminology
Chapter One: Marx and Markets
I. Markets and Fetishism
II. Ending Fetishism
III. Post-capitalist Stages
IV. Socialist Inefficiency
Chapter Two: Marx and Democracy
I. Political Alienation
II. Paris Commune
III. Democracy
IV. Dictatorship of the Proletariat
V. State as Battleground
VI. Proletarian Minority
Chapter Three: Marx and Minority Revolution
I. Minority Revolution
II. Permanent Revolution
III. Russian Revolution
Chapter Four: Marx and Majority Revolution
I. Majority Revolution
II. Historical Materialism and the Categorical Imperative
III. Compatibility of Models for Revolution
IV. Political Revolution and Social Revolution
Chapter Five: Marx and Social Democratic Revolution
I. Social Democratic Revolution
II. Industrial Proletariat Never Becomes a Majority
III. Social Democracy and the Categorical Imperative.
IV. Social Democracy and Historical Materialism
V. Marx and the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Chapter Six: Marx and Social Democracy
I. Characteristics of Social Democracy
II. The Meidner Plan
III. Planning
IV. Social Democracy and Capitalism
V. Polarization and Immiseration
VI. Concluding Remarks
Bibliography
Index