Author Archive

Ferdinand Lassalle

Ferdinand Lassalle was a German jurist, political philosopher, and socialist organizer who helped found the General German Workers' Association in 1863, a precursor of the Social Democratic Party. His major writings include The Philosophy of Heraclitus, The System of Acquired Rights, and The Workers' Programme, in which he argued for state-supported workers' associations and a cooperative commonwealth as means of social reform. He also contributed to constitutional and legal theory and to debates over wage law and the role of the state in emancipating labor.

28 summaries in the archive