Reformism

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. Within the socialist movement, reformism holds that gradual change 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 of non-reformist reform in 1987 to prioritize human needs over capitalist needs. As a political doctrine, centre-left reformism is distinguished from centre-right reformism, which instead aims to safeguard and permeate the status quo by preventing fundamental structural changes thereof. 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. Religious reformism has variously affected, for example, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, sometimes occasioning heresies, sectarian schisms, and entirely new religious denominations.