ABSTRACT

The relationship between Marxism and the Jewish question provides one important location for the debate about reformism in the context of a capitalist society where there is massive economic inequality. The so called 'Jewish question' was important in the biography of the Marx family was formative in the development of Marx's political analysis of capitalist society. Marx was obviously aware that criticism of democracy often came from the extreme right and that it was important to distinguish Marxist from other criticisms of the democratic process. It was also clear to him that while bourgeois democracy was inadequate it represented a challenge to traditional aristocratic authoritarianism and that working-class politics very typically assumed a political democratic dimension. According to Marxism it is only through a radical transformation of the underlying economic structure that political rights and citizenship can have any real content. Marshall is criticized for treating the development of citizenship rights as an irreversible trend of development.