IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v92y2025i2p313-337.html

Did Karl Marx party in 1891? The effect of SPD's Erfurt program on Karl Marx's citations

Author

Listed:
  • Phillip W. Magness
  • Michael Makovi

Abstract

The Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) is often proposed as a pre‐Soviet popularizer of Marxist economic theories due to its electoral successes in Germany in the decades before World War I. Using the synthetic control method, we examine whether German‐language print references to Karl Marx responded to the SPD's adoption of the Marx‐inspired Erfurt Program of 1891. In doing so, we account for the near‐simultaneous repeal of anti‐socialist censorship laws in Germany. Evidence of a boost to Marx's citations from the Erfurt Program is modest, and cannot be distinguished from the effect of the censorship repeal on all socialist writers. These results suggest that the SPD's role in popularizing Marx was minor compared to later events such as the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Suggested Citation

  • Phillip W. Magness & Michael Makovi, 2025. "Did Karl Marx party in 1891? The effect of SPD's Erfurt program on Karl Marx's citations," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 92(2), pages 313-337, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:92:y:2025:i:2:p:313-337
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12747
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/soej.12747?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Solomon F. Bloom, 1943. "Man of His Century: A Reconsideration of the Historical Significance of Karl Marx," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(6), pages 494-494.
    2. Phillip W. Magness & Michael Makovi, 2023. "The Mainstreaming of Marx: Measuring the Effect of the Russian Revolution on Karl Marx’s Influence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(6), pages 1507-1545.
    3. Alberto Abadie, 2021. "Using Synthetic Controls: Feasibility, Data Requirements, and Methodological Aspects," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 391-425, June.
    4. Tom Coupé, 2022. "Who is the most sought‐after economist? Ranking economists using Google Trends," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(2), pages 611-642, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Filippo Pietrini, 2025. "The Dissemination of Marx in England: a Quantitative Assessment," Working Papers - Economics wp2025_01.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    2. Maximiliano Marzetti & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Long-Term Economic Effects of Populist Legal Reforms: Evidence from Argentina," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(1), pages 60-95, March.
    3. Jonne Y. Guyt & Arjen van Lin & Kristopher O. Keller, 2025. "Banning Unsolicited Store Flyers: Does Helping the Environment Hurt Retailing?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(5), pages 1104-1124, September.
    4. Sadeghi, Ali & Kibler, Ewald, 2022. "Do bankruptcy laws matter for entrepreneurship? A Synthetic Control Method analysis of a bankruptcy reform in Finland," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    5. repec:osf:osfxxx:s8ayp_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Bischoff, Ivo & Das, Sourav & Kosfeld, Reinhold, 2025. "Does inter-municipal cooperation reduce the intensity of tax competition? Evidence on inter-local industrial parks in Germany," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Jack (Peiyao) Ma & Andrea Mantovani & Carlo Reggiani & Annette Broocks & Néstor Duch-Brown, 2024. "The Price Effects of Prohibiting Price Parity Clauses: Evidence from International Hotel Groups," Economics Series Working Papers 1043, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. aus dem Moore, Nils & Brehm, Johannes & Gruhl, Henri, 2025. "Driving innovation? Carbon tax effects in the Swedish transport sector," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    9. Zhentao Shi & Jin Xi & Haitian Xie, 2025. "A Synthetic Business Cycle Approach to Counterfactual Analysis with Nonstationary Macroeconomic Data," Papers 2505.22388, arXiv.org.
    10. Pekka Malo & Juha Eskelinen & Xun Zhou & Timo Kuosmanen, 2024. "Computing Synthetic Controls Using Bilevel Optimization," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 64(2), pages 1113-1136, August.
    11. Robert Messerle & Jonas Schreyögg, 2024. "Country-level effects of diagnosis-related groups: evidence from Germany’s comprehensive reform of hospital payments," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 25(6), pages 1013-1030, August.
    12. Dominika Langenmayr & Mikayel Tovmasyan & Sebastian Vosseler, 2025. "Bypassing Sanctions: Hide 'N Seek in Tax Havens?," Working Papers 202536, Center for Global Policy Analysis, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University.
    13. Michael Funke & Helery Tasane, 2025. "Regional economic impacts of the Øresund cross-border fixed link: Cui Bono?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(1), pages 2573115-257, December.
    14. Garoupa, Nuno & Spruk, Rok, 2025. "Populist constitutional backsliding and judicial independence: Evidence from Türkiye," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    15. Andrew Hanson & Shawn Rohlin, 2024. "Local employment multipliers for large publicly subsidized firms: Evidence from a synthetic control approach," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 491-526, March.
    16. Emiliano Toni & Pablo Paniagua & Patricio 'Ordenes, 2024. "Policy Changes and Growth Slowdown: Assessing the Lost Decade of the Latin American Miracle," Papers 2407.02003, arXiv.org.
    17. Adam Scavette, 2023. "The Impact of New Jersey's Urban Enterprise Zones on Local Employment: A Synthetic Control Approach," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 37(2), pages 127-142, May.
    18. Andrii Melnychuk, 2024. "Synthetic Controls with spillover effects: A comparative study," Papers 2405.01645, arXiv.org.
    19. Alexander Goryunov & Elena Ageshina & Igor Lavrentev & Polina Peretyatko, 2023. "Estimating the effect of Russia’s development policy in the Far Eastern region: The synthetic control approach," Applied Econometrics, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 72, pages 58-72.
    20. Adu, Derick T. & Li, Wenying & Sawadgo, Wendiam P.M., 2023. "Estimating the unintended impact of the North American free trade agreement on U.S. public health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    21. Michalek Jerzy & Ciaian Pavel, 2025. "EU rural development support and young farmers’ economic performance: A comparative study of Poland and Germany," JRC Research Reports JRC143803, Joint Research Centre.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:92:y:2025:i:2:p:313-337. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.