Democracy in Marxism
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While Marxists propose replacing the bourgeois state with a proletarian semi-state through revolution (
Karl Marx criticized liberalism as not democratic enough and found the unequal social situation of the workers during the Industrial Revolution undermined the democratic agency of citizens.[13] Marxists differ in their positions towards democracy.[14][15]
controversy over Marx's legacy today turns largely on its ambiguous relation to democracy
— Robert Meister[16]
Some argue democratic decision-making consistent with Marxism should include voting on how
Soviet Union and Bolshevism
In the 19th century, The Communist Manifesto (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels called for the international political unification of the European working classes in order to achieve a Communist revolution; and proposed that, because the socio-economic organization of communism was of a higher form than that of capitalism, a workers' revolution would first occur in the economically advanced, industrialized countries. Marxist social democracy was strongest in Germany throughout the 19th century, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany inspired Lenin and other Russian Marxists.[18]
During the revolutionary ferment of the
Russian historian
Functionally, the Leninist
In November 1917, Lenin issued the Decree on Workers' Control, which called on the workers of each enterprise to establish an elected committee to monitor their enterprise's management.
Adopting a left libertarian perspective, both the Left Communists and some factions in the Communist Party critiqued the decline of democratic institutions in Russia.[27] Internationally, some socialists decried Lenin's regime and denied that he was establishing socialism; in particular, they highlighted the lack of widespread political participation, popular consultation, and industrial democracy.[28]
Following Stalin's consolidation of power in the Soviet Union and static centralization of political power, Trotsky condemned the Soviet government's policies for lacking widespread democratic participation on the part of the population and for suppressing workers' self-management and democratic participation in the management of the economy. Because these authoritarian political measures were inconsistent with the organizational precepts of socialism, Trotsky characterized the Soviet Union as a deformed workers' state that would not be able to effectively transition to socialism. Ostensibly socialist states where democracy is lacking, yet the economy is largely in the hands of the state, are termed by orthodox Trotskyist theories as degenerated or deformed workers' states and not socialist states.[31]
Chinese Communist Party perspective
Mao Zedong put forward the concept of
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was the primary government body through which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sought to incorporate non-CCP elements into the political system pursuant to principles of New Democracy.[35]: 43 On September 29, 1949, the CPPCC unanimously adopted the Common Program as the basic political program for the country following the success of the Chinese Communist Revolution.[36]: 25 The Common Program defined China as a new democratic country which would practice a people's democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat and based on an alliance of workers and peasants which would unite all of China's democratic classes (defined as those opposing imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism and favoring an independent China).[36]: 25
From 2007 to 2009, Hu Jintao promoted intra-party party democracy (dangnei minzhu, 党内民主) in an effort to decrease the party's focus on top-down decision-making.[37]: 18
The core socialist values campaign introduced during the 18th National Congress in 2012[38] promotes democracy as one of its four national values.[39]: 204 The Xi Jinping administration promotes a view of consultative democracy (xieshang minzhu 协商民主) rather than intra-party democracy.[37]: 18 This view of socialist democracy emphasizes consulting more often with society at large while strengthening the leading role of the party.[37]: 18
Beginning in 2019, the party developed the concept of "whole-process democracy" which by 2021 was named whole-process people's democracy (the addition of "people's" emphasized a connection to the Maoist concept of the mass line).[40] Under this view, a "real and effective socialist democracy" can be presented as a series of four paired relationships: 1) “process democracy” (过程民主) and “achievement democracy” (成果民主), 2) “procedural democracy” (程序民主) and “substantive democracy” (实质民主), 3) “direct democracy” (直接民主) and “indirect democracy” (间接民主), and 4) “people’s democracy” (人民民主) and the “will of the state” (国家意志).[41] Whole-process people's democracy is a primarily consequentialist view, in which the most important criterion for evaluating the success of democracy is whether democracy can "solve the people's real problems," while a system in which "the people are awakened only for voting" is not truly democratic.[40] As a result, whole-process people's democracy critiques liberal democracy for its excessive focus on procedure.[40]
See also
- Council democracy
- Council communism
- Criticisms of communist regimes
- Criticisms of Marxism
- List of political parties in the Soviet Union
Notes
- ^ a b Calhoun 2002, p. 23
- ISBN 978-0-275-96370-5. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2012 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-0415255837. Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2012 – via Google Books.
- S2CID 221178956.
- ^ How To Read Karl Marx
- ^ [The Class Struggles In France Introduction by Frederick Engels https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/class-struggles-france/intro.htm]
- ^ Marx, Engels and the vote (June 1983)
- ^ "Karl Marx:Critique of the Gotha Programme".
- ^ Mary Gabriel (October 29, 2011). "Who was Karl Marx?". CNN.
- ^ "You know that the institutions, mores, and traditions of various countries must be taken into consideration, and we do not deny that there are countries – such as America, England, and if I were more familiar with your institutions, I would perhaps also add Holland – where the workers can attain their goal by peaceful means. This being the case, we must also recognise the fact that in most countries on the Continent the lever of our revolution must be force; it is force to which we must some day appeal to erect the rule of labour." La Liberté Speech delivered by Karl Marx on 8 September 1872, in Amsterdam
- ^ Hal Draper (1970). "The Death of the State in Marx and Engels". Socialist Register.
- ^ Niemi, William L. "Karl Marx's sociological theory of democracy: Civil society and political rights." The Social Science Journal 48.1 (2011): 39-51.
- ^ Miliband, Ralph. Marxism and politics. Aakar Books, 2011.
- ^ Springborg, Patricia. "Karl Marx on democracy, participation, voting, and equality." Political Theory 12.4 (1984): 537-556.
- ^ Meister, Robert. "Political Identity: Thinking Through Marx." (1991).
- ^ Wolff, Richard. "Marxism and democracy." Rethinking Marxism 12.1 (2000): 112-122.
- ISBN 978-90-04-13120-0.
- ^ Tony Cliff (1978). "The Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly". Marxists.org.
- ISBN 978-1-893638-97-6.
- ISBN 978-0-14-020749-1.
- ^ The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought Third Edition (1999) pp. 476–477.
- ^ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition. (1994), p. 1,558.
- ISBN 978-1-78168-721-5.
- ^ Pipes 1990, p. 709; Service 2000, p. 321.
- ^ Rigby 1979, p. 50; Pipes 1990, p. 689; Sandle 1999, p. 64; Service 2000, p. 321; Read 2005, p. 231.
- ^ Sandle 1999, p. 120.
- ^ Service 2000, pp. 354–355.
- ISBN 978-1-893638-97-6.
- ISBN 978-0-929087-48-1.
- ^ Trotsky, Leon (1935). "The Workers' State, Thermidor and Bonapartism". New International. 2 (4): 116–122. "Trotsky argues that the Soviet Union was, at that time, a "deformed workers' state" or degenerated workers' state, and not a socialist republic or state, because the "bureaucracy wrested the power from the hands of mass organizations," thereby necessitating only political revolution rather than a completely new social revolution, for workers' political control (i.e. state democracy) to be reclaimed. He argued that it remained, at base, a workers' state because the capitalists and landlords had been expropriated". Retrieved 27 December 2019.
- ISBN 9780674271913.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8223-4780-4.
- ^ OCLC 63178961.
- ISBN 9781736850084.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4878-0391-9.
- ^ ISBN 9781760466244.
- ^ "How Much Should We Read Into China's New "Core Socialist Values"?". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
- ISBN 978-0-295-74738-5.
- ^ OCLC 1354535847.
- ^ "Whole-Process Democracy". China Media Project. 23 November 2021. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
Works cited
- ISBN 978-0-631-21348-2.
- Fischer, Louis (1964). The Life of Lenin. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
- ISBN 978-0-679-73660-8.
- Read, Christopher (2005). Lenin: A Revolutionary Life. Routledge Historical Biographies. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-20649-5.
- Rigby, T. H. (1979). Lenin's Government: Sovnarkom 1917–1922. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22281-5.
- Ryan, James (2012). Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-81568-1.
- Sandle, Mark (1999). A Short History of Soviet Socialism. London: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1-85728-355-6.
- ISBN 978-0-333-72625-9.
- ISBN 978-0-00-255123-6.
- White, James D. (2001). Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution. European History in Perspective. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-333-72157-5.