introduces the theory developed by Leon Trotsky to understand
new developments in capitalism in the era after Karl Marx. THE
MARXISM that prevailed in the socialist movement in the early
part of the 20th century was based on the idea that history
moved in defined stages. No new social formation, it was
believed, could arise in any society until the old had created
all the material conditions necessary to realize it. Alongside
this economic schema went a political one. "Vulgar 'Marxism' has
worked out a pattern of historical development," wrote Trotsky,
"according to which every bourgeois society sooner or later
secures a democratic regime, after which the proletariat, under
conditions of democracy, is gradually organized and educated for
socialism." These were seen as two entirely separate and
distinct stages, "separated by great distances of time from each
other." Certain writings of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
seemed to promote this idea. "The country that is more developed
industrially only shows, to th