Trotsky's Concept of "Permanent Revolution"

This works intends to present a very short introduction to the concept of Permanent Revolution, as developed by Trotsky, in terms of its theorethical roots and precise place place in the intellectual history of Marxism. It begins, firstly, by trying to trace the concept's pre-Trotskyite origins, looking for them at the divide between Liberalism and Socialism, between formal and actual equality. Secondly, it investigates the precise character of this divide,either as a continuity between historical stages or as a parallel course of development. Thirdly, basing itself on Luxemburg's and Trotsky's writings, it investigates the character of the socialist revolution as a continuation of a previous process of bourgeois economic and democratic development, or, in contrast, as an overcoming of this process. Lastly, it concludes with an ascertaining of the concept's present relevance.