Political Ideologies by Baradat Leon P

Author:Baradat, Leon P.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317345558
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published: 2015-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

Marxist Theory of Revolution

Marx vacillated over whether violence was necessary to achieve socialist goals. During the early part of his professional life, he clearly suggested that one could not hope for a change from a capitalist system to a socialist one without violence. Gradually, however, he began to weaken this position until finally he admitted that certain systems (such as those in England, Holland, and perhaps the United States) might be responsive enough to adopt socialism by nonviolent means. Violence was still necessary elsewhere, however. Later, Lenin would again insist that no meaningful change could occur without violence.

The basis of Marx’s argument for violence was his perception of the dialectic process. He believed that technological change cannot be stopped: Resources will become depleted, and new means of production will inevitably evolve, resulting in economic change. When the economy changes, economic determinism dictates that the entire foundation of the society must be transformed, compelling a change in its superstructure as well. In other words, economic change cannot be prevented. Economic change forces social change, which, in turn, drives political change. Violence is necessary in this process because the rulers who control the economy feel their economic and political power threatened by the uncontrollable changes taking place in the means of production. Vainly trying to resist the inevitable, they use their governmental power to keep themselves in control. However, they are resisting the progress of history. History is therefore propelled from one era to another. A series of revolutions punctuate the dialectic dynamic; each new era is born in the victory of those who control the new dominant means of production. In the final struggle the proletariat will confront their capitalist exploiters. The capitalists will use force, but their resistance is doomed to defeat at the hands of the irresistible pressure of history.

More specifically, Marx predicted the demise of capitalism. Competition, he argued, would force the capitalists to buy more machinery. Yet, only human labor can produce a surplus value; thus, the capitalists’ profits would decline as they employed fewer people. At the same time, unemployment would increase among the proletariat as competition forced increasing numbers of former capitalists into the proletarian ranks. On the one hand, the size of the proletariat and the depth of its misery would increase; on the other, the wealth in the society would be held by fewer people. Marx predicted that every capitalist society would be subject to increasingly frequent and ever more serious economic convulsions. Eventually, the misery of the proletariat would increase to a point that could no longer be endured and a revolution would erupt, bringing the system to its knees. “The knell of capitalist private property sounds,” Marx wrote, savoring the irony, “The expropriators are expropriated.”

Using the French Revolution as his model, Marx envisioned a spontaneous uprising of the workers. Conditions for the common people in prerevolutionary France had degenerated to miserable levels. Yet, little was done in the way of advance planning for a popular revolt prior to its eruption in Paris in 1789.

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