Marx and Engels' Critique of Democracy: The Materialist Character of their Concept of Autonomy

Abstract

The philosophical background to Marx and Engels' concept of democracy has not been seriously analysed by the research community thus far. Rather than focusing on one aspect of Marx and Engels' understanding of democracy, this article attempts to clarify the overall development of this concept in their political theory. By providing supporting textual evidence in order to generate a precise understanding of the value-laden meaning of their use of the term ‘democracy’, it for the first time links democracy with the materialist character of their philosophy. In their thinking, autonomy obtains a materialistic character, meaning it is strongly connected to the conditions of society's reproduction and thus to the question of property. Democracy for Marx and Engels was a moment of social practice, the social form taken by the most important social relationship, capital, and is therefore, like other social forms, a process. At the end of the paper, I differentiate my understanding of what Marx and Engels bring to the discussion on democracy from other interpretations that either reject the Marxian approach to democracy or misunderstand its materialist character, as Negri does, even though he claims to be following the Marxian path.