Eduard Bernstein, a German politician of the socialist party, sets out his beliefs in peaceful, incremental legislative transition to a socialist planned economy.

Writing in 1899, the mature Bernstein had by this time disavowed the earlier doctrines of Marxism which crucially advocated violence in the form of revolutionary upheaval. Across three chapters, he details the practical steps a given nation can take to instilling socialism via peaceful means. Quoting Marx's later works, as well as the words of Friedrich Engels, Bernstein develops an alternative thesis that goes against the grain of early Communist thought.

Bernstein discusses how a society can realign its industry, production and workers toward achieving a purely socialist-communist outcome. Under no illusions about the stark differences between a capitalist, free market economy and a planned, socialist one, the author details how and in what order the incremental changes towards socialism should be implemented.