Conclusion

What, to repeat, are the broad and key conclusions to be drawn from the four real-time politics comparisons? How do the claims, again, that Marx, Engels and Lenin made about the historical moments under examination, the French edition of the European Spring, the American Civil War, the Russian Revolution of 1905, and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and end to World War I, compare and contrast to those of Tocqueville, Mill, Weber and Wilson? What about the events with which I’ve supplemented the Marx-Mill and Lenin-Weber comparisons, respectively electoral reform in Britain and the consequences of the October 1917 Revolution for Germany? To what extent are the readings of the protagonists of the events in agreement and disagreement? Which of them had a more accurate reading and made better forecasts? How did their theoretical/political views influence their responses? How do the four comparisons reveal key differences between Marxist and different varieties of liberal real-time politics? Most important, to what extent did their actions advance the democratic quest that was posed in all four moments? Can, lastly, a case be made for a superior theoretical purchase of either perspective for doing real-time politics? These are the questions to interrogate the four comparisons.