Reformism

This article is about the contemporary political movement. For historical use of the term reform, see Reformism (historical). For other uses, see Reform (disambiguation).
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Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political or religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution.[1]

Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eventually lead to fundamental changes in a society's political and economic systems. Reformism as a political tendency and hypothesis of social change grew out of opposition to revolutionary socialism, which contends that revolutionary upheaval is a necessary precondition for the structural changes necessary to transform a capitalist system into a qualitatively different socialist system. Responding to a pejorative conception of reformism as non-transformational, philosopher André Gorz conceived non-reformist reform in 1987 to prioritize human needs over capitalist needs.[2]

As a political doctrine, centre-left reformism is distinguished[citation needed] from centre-right or pragmatic reform, which instead aims to safeguard and permeate the status quo by preventing fundamental structural changes to it. Leftist reformism posits that an accumulation of reforms can eventually lead to the emergence of entirely different economic and political systems than those of present-day capitalism and bureaucracy.[3]

Religious reformism has variously affected (for example) Judaism,[4][5] Christianity[6] and Islam[7] since time immemorial, sometimes occasioning heresies, sectarian schisms and entirely new denominations.

  1. ^ "Reformism". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 26 December 2019. [Reformism is] a doctrine or movement advocating reform, esp[ecially] political or religious reform, rather than abolition.
  2. ^ Gorz, André (1987). "Strategy for Labor". In Larson, Simeon; Nissen, Bruce (eds.). Theories of the Labor Movement. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 102. ISBN 9780814318164.
  3. ^ Blackledge, Paul (4 July 2013). "Left reformism, the state and the problem of socialist politics today". International Socialist Journal (139). Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  4. ^ For example: Fensham, F. Charles (24 February 1983). "Historical Background". The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 9781467422987. Retrieved 29 January 2024. One may envisage the events according to the traditional view as follows. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in 458 with the sole aim — and by order of the Persian king — to promulgate a religious reform. [...] Presumably, after his reforms Ezra returned to Susa. [...] During Nehemiah's twelve-year stay in Jerusalem Ezra returned and supported Nehemiah's attempts to carry through his reforms. [...] the temple had been rebuilt, the wall of Jerusalem restored, the cultic activities properly organized, and the purity of the religion preserved.
  5. ^ Monroe, Lauren A. S. (1 June 2011). "Herem Ideology and the politics of Destruction: Josiah's Reform in Deuteronomistic Perspective". Josiah's Reform and the Dynamics of Defilement: Israelite Rites of Violence and the Making of a Biblical Text. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199775361. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  6. ^ Not just in the shape of Calvinism's Reformed Church, but also due to Luther, Wesley and sundry others – see Reformation as well as Counter-Reformation.
  7. ^ Haddad, Mohamed (28 February 2021). Muslim Reformism – A Critical History: Is Islamic Religious Reform Possible?. Volume 11 of Philosophy and Politics – Critical Explorations. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 9783030367763. Retrieved 29 January 2024.