Marx’s Ambivalence: State, Proletarian Dictatorship and Commune

Abstract

ABSTRACTFor Marx, what happens to the state under socialism in power, after a communist revolution? This study requires a strict self-discipline: to avoid reading later positions back into Marx’s own positions. The material is organised in sections. The first concerns Marx’s observations on hitherto existing forms of the state, especially absolutist, bourgeois and imperialist forms (directly experienced in Prussia and England). The second concerns his proposals for what may follow, focusing on the dictatorship of the proletariat. The third deals with the commune, based on the experiment in Paris in 1871. The material on the proletarian dictatorship and the commune evinces a number of tensions, which Marx bequeathed to the subsequent tradition. He also begins to offer a possible resolution. Thus, the final section examines Marx’s fascinating struggle in dealing with forms of governance under communism. That he realised such governance is necessary is clear, but that he was also reticent to spell it out in detail is also obvious—not least because he seemed to know that he did not have the experience and thereby evidence to undertake a “scientific” study of what happens to the state under communism. Throughout, the emphasis is on careful analysis of Marx’s texts.