The Division of Labor and the Post-Capitalist State

Abstract

Marx formulated his basic principles with regard to the conditions of a socialist transformation well before the burden of historical experience had deeply affected the political movement of the proletariat first through the accommodations of German Social Democracy, and then through the formation of the Leninist vanguard party after Marx's death. Understandably, therefore, the far-reaching implications of such developments had to remain beyond Marx's horizon, although the radical skepticism of his dixi et salvavi animam meam ("I have spoken and saved my soul") at the end of his Critique of the Gotha Programme bears witness to the feeling of unease with which he greeted the newly emerging trends of working-class involvement in the political arena.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.