Marx stated that different modes of production produced different societies:a feudal mode of production,for example would produce a feudal society.
Marx identified six different stages that society goes through based on the mode of production used.They are as follows:primitive communism,were there was equality for all,and everyone worked together for the benefit of society.This was followed by slavery,where one person owns another.This was seen as an inefficient system as it required supervision or even force to achieve high production.Next came feudalism,where the monarch and their supporters divided and controlled the land, and where there was mutual dependency ,i.e. the kings, lords and serfs are linked in terms of duty and obligation.
The next stage was capitalism,or free market economy where profit provides incentives.In this phase,power and profits become centralised in the hands of the privileged few leading to a class gulf.Socialism takes over when the workers begin to tire of capitalism and are convinced that it isn’t working,this leads to the workers exercising full control until all signs of capitalism have gone.To put this another way,it leads to revolution.Lastly there is the final ultimate stage for any society in Marx’s view, communism.This can be defined as the communal organisation of social existence on the basis of collective ownership of property(Heywood 1997:33).This is essentially a classless society,so after a short period of time the state would no longer be required and would gradually wither away.
Marx believed that each of these stages represents a natural progression for mankind,that in each stage(apart from the primitive and communist stage) there was the existence of social classes and that the change from one stage to another was always a revolutionary one,i.e the rising working class would challenge the ruling class,and that they in turn would become the new ruling class, like the French revolution for example.
Marx said that the revolution is followed by the “dictatorship of the proletariat”,when the workers take over the state and all its instuments of coercion and use these instruments against the capitalist class.As the state is now being used by the workers against the capitalists its substance changes.It becomes the instrument of the many against the few,as the means of production become socialised ,classes disappear since there can be no classes without property.Without classes,there is no need for coercion.The dictatorship paves the way towards its own disappearance and to the establishment of a classless and stateless society.(Macridis&Hulliung,1996:107).
Lenin,which was actually a pseudonym,his real surname was Ulyanov was a Russian Marxist theorist and also an active revolutionary.His contributions to Marxism were his theory of the revolutionary or vanguard party,outlined in What is to be done?(1902),his analysis of colonialism as an economic phenomena,described in Imperialism,the highest stage of capitalism(1916),and his firm commitment to the ‘insurrectionary road to socialism’ developed in State and Revolution in 1917.(Heywood:1997:75) Lenin faithfully accepted the body of Marx’s work and devoted most of his life defending Marx’s ideas.It is said that Lenin gave Marxist ideology and revolutionary tactics a new sharpness and urgency .Lenin took Marx’s theoretical blueprint and adapted it not only to the revolutionary movement in Russia,but also to the independence movements of colonial world.The first successful revolution in the name of Marxism was the Bolshevik revolution led by Lenin on the 7th of November 1917.
A great part of Lenin’s life was devoted to the development of a revolutionary doctrine.In The State and Revolution(1917),he summarised the Marxist theory as follows.The state is the product of the irreconcibility of class antagonisms and the agency of capitalistic class.Lenin stated that liberal democracy was another name for capitalism ,ensuring control and domination of the workers .He also believed that the law and the state were instruments used by the ruling classes to dominate the workers,and he believed that revolution and the triumph of the working classes was both desirable and inevitable.A major difference between Lenin and Marx is Lenin’s belief that although the progression from capitalism to communism was inevitable,the working classes,rather than rising en masse to overthrow the capitalist class,that they would need leadership and organisation as he thought that the working class couldn’t develop a revolutionary consciousness on its own.He said that there was a need for an elite of gifted individuals with an understanding of Marxism –the vanguard of the proletariat,to be organised into a communist party.This group of individuals,mainly middle class intellectuals,would have the job of educating the masses,instilling in them with a revolutionary spirit and raising their awareness of class consciousness.This would lead them towards revolution,and
ultimately,communism.This was a point he proved with the 1917 Bolshevik revolution,when instead of taking the classical Marxist stance of waiting for the proper conditions for revolution,he and a small band of tightly- knit revolutionaries seized power in the name of the masses as the proletariat were still a small and politically unsophisticated group.
Lenin envisaged the following stages on the road to revolution.Firstly the armed uprising of the proletariat,under proper leadership.Secondly,the seizure of political control by the workers,in the form of a temporary “dictatorship of the proletariat,” against the remnants of the capitalist classes.Lenin defined this dictatorship as follows,”The scientific concept of dictatorship[of the proletariat] means neither more nor less than unlimited power,resting directly on force,not limited by anything,not restricted by any law or absolute rules.Nothing else but that.
(Macridis&Hulliung:1996:111) .Following this sees the socialisation of the
means of production and the abolition of private property,which in turn leads to the final slow “withering away of the state” as an instrument of coercion and oppression
and the emergence of a stateless classless society.
So in summation,although Marx and Lenin held similar beliefs,they both had differing
ideas on how to achieve the same goal of a classless and stateless society.While
Marx was content to wait for events to unfold and believed that society would eventually progress along the road to revolution at some point,Lenin held the belief that the proletariat had to be led along the road to revolution by a leader.Both of these theories benefit the individual in society in similar ways but from Marx’s viewpoint the individual may have to put up with oppression from the capitalist classes for a long time before the build-up of a revolutionary force to oppose them.
Whereas in Lenin’s view a small but well organised group could take control at the
earliest possible opportunity in the name of the masses.But both Marx and Lenin agreed that the outcome of revolution would benefit the individual as they both shared the same vision of a stateless classless society,with no need for any sort of state control.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Heywood.Andrew (1997)Politics(McMillan Press Ltd)
Macridis,Roy,C & Hulling,Mark(1996) Contemporary Political Ideologies 6th edition
(Harper Collins)
Course Notes
