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The "dictatorship of the proletariat" is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society "in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat". The term does not refer to a concentration of power, but to the rule by the proletariat (working class) which replaces the current political situation controlled by the bourgeoisie (class that appropriates surplus). It thus has little in common with the classic definition of "dictatorship"--an institution of elite, ancient Roman republican rule. Marx's concept has nothing to do with the despotism associated with the contemporary meaning of the term. The Roman dictatura still had limits placed upon it even as it temporarily exercised absolute power. Marx's vision is vastly more accountable than the Roman institution, since he wishes the working class to use it to create a democratic "social republic" where the masses are in control, no longer an exploitative or oppressive elite. While workers can easily place power in the hands of one or a few "dictators," and still feel secure they they will retain control over the economy and society, the dictatorship of the proletariat, having a democratic social goal, must itself be democratic. However, different marxist currents interpret this in different ways. Leninists believe it to be excercised through elected representatives from worker's parties instead of directly by the working class itself. This echos Lenin's emphasis on centralization which implies a State run from a centre through a chain of command.
Marxs "dictatorship of the proletariat" Before 1875, Marx said little about what in practice would characterize a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” believing that planning in advance the details of a future socialist system constituted the fallacy of "utopian socialism." Thus, Marx used the term very infrequently. When he did use it, the term "dictatorship" describes control by an entire class, rather than a single individual (dictator rei gerendae causa). According to Marx, the bourgeois state, being a system of class rule, amounts to a 'dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.' When workers take state power into their hands, they become the new ruling class and rule in their own interest, using State machinery to prevent the bourgeoisie mounting a counterrevolution. Marx expected the workers to be democratic and open in dealings with one another. Marx viewed the dictatorship of the proletariat as an intermediate stage, believing that the need for workers to use state power would disappear once a classless society had emerged. Although Marx did not plan out the details of how such a dictatorship would be implemented, he pointed to the Paris Commune as a model of transition to communism. Later, Friedrich Engels, in his 1891 postscript to the Civil War in France stressed the dismantling of the state apparatus, the decentralization of power and popular democratic control over and management of civil society. The pamphlet praised the democratic features of the Paris Commune, arguing that the working class, once in power, had to "do away with all the old repressive machinery previously used against it itself," and that it must "safeguard itself against its own deputies and officials, by declaring them all, without exception, subject to recall at any moment." * The 1891 postscript qualified the 1871 Commune as the first "dictatorship of the proletariat". The "dictatorship of the proletariat" since Lenin The Paris Commune was short-lived, and no other serious attempt at implementing Marx's ideas was made during his lifetime. After Marx, Vladimir Lenin discussed the concept of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" in The State and Revolution (1917), elaborating his proposals for putting it into practice. Lenin believed that the political form of the Paris Commune was revived in the councils of workers and soldiers that appeared after the 1905 Russian Revolution that called themselves soviets. Their task, according to Lenin, was to overthrow the capitalist state and establish socialism, the stage preceding communism. According to Lenin (1902), under certain conditions, it may be possible to dispense with a dictatorship, namely - when the proletariat is guaranteed of an overwhelming majority Notes on Plenkhanov's Second Draft Programme. LCW. Vol 6, p51. Like Marx and Engels, Lenin did not think that a liberal democracy could represent the interests of the proletariat because it would inevitably lead to a "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie." Quotations See also | ||||||||
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