Stateless communism, also known as
pure communism, is the ideal, post-socialist stage of society which
Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
predicted would inevitably follow the historical stages of
capitalismCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
and
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
. Stateless communism is closely related and connected to
world communismWorld communism, also known as international communism or global communism, is the terminal stage of development of the history of communism in Marxist theory. It has also usually been equated to the Comintern . This is the meaning that typically and historically has been meant by opponents of...
.
- Anarchists and Marxists both agree on the long-term desirability of a stateless society
Stateless society describes a society without a government. It is generally the goal of anarchists who believe that government is both unnecessary and also directly harmful in that it infringes on the personal and economic freedoms of people....
.
- For Lenin, a classless society would be a wholly working class society, organised to produce according to socially managed goals.
Discussion
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Stateless communism, also known as
pure communism, is the ideal, post-socialist stage of society which
Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
predicted would inevitably follow the historical stages of
capitalismCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
and
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
. Stateless communism is closely related and connected to
world communismWorld communism, also known as international communism or global communism, is the terminal stage of development of the history of communism in Marxist theory. It has also usually been equated to the Comintern . This is the meaning that typically and historically has been meant by opponents of...
.
- Anarchists and Marxists both agree on the long-term desirability of a stateless society
Stateless society describes a society without a government. It is generally the goal of anarchists who believe that government is both unnecessary and also directly harmful in that it infringes on the personal and economic freedoms of people....
.
- For Lenin, a classless society would be a wholly working class society, organised to produce according to socially managed goals. Such a society, Lenin suggested, would develop habits that would gradually make political representation unnecessary, as the radically democratic nature of the Soviets would lead citizens to come to agree with the representatives' style of management. Only in this environment, Lenin suggested, could the state wither away, ushering in a period of stateless communism. http://www.acrewoods.net/politics/ideologies/marxism-and-the-problem-of-the-state
- The administration of socialist economy is a direct function of the state in its struggle to overcome class oppositions. So here we have a difference in principle in the relation between "society" and the "state", between "politics" and "economics", between the "administration of people" and the "administration of things". In such conditions the development of productive forces and the victorious course of the class struggle systematically prepare the transition to the swallowing up of the political functions of the state in administrative and economic functions, i.e. the transition to classless and stateless communist society. http://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1933/teaching/4.htm
Usage notes
Often when academics or others argue about whether a certain country is "communist", the dispute hinges on the definition used:
- Marxists, along with other socialists, prefer to use terms like "communism" for the post-revolution stage Marx predicted, in which the State
A sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
has "withered away".
- Others, particularly anti-Communists, prefer to use terms like "communism" for any country ruled by a Communist Party
A political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name originates from the 1848 tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels...
or in modern use, for any state deemed too socialist or not capitalist/libertarian/democratic/republican enough. That is to say, states with high levels of nationalised industry are termed 'Communist' by anti-Communists.
The contradiction is irreconcilable, because what Marxists call a "
socialist stateThe term socialist republic can carry one of several different meanings.Strictly speaking, any real or hypothetical state that officially claims to support or uphold the principles of socialism may be called a socialist state...
" is utterly different from the predicted future stage of "communism"; and because what anti-Communists call a "
Communist stateIn political science, a Communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule of a Communist party and a professed allegiance to a communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state....
" corresponds in most respects to what Marxists call a "socialist state".
See also
- Anarchist Communism
Anarchist communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct or consensus democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations, workers' councils, or a gift economy...
- Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
- Workers of the world, unite!
The political slogan Workers of the world, unite!, is one of the most famous rallying cries of communism, found in The Communist Manifesto , by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
- World revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through communist revolution. These revolutions would not necessarily occur simultaneously, but where local conditions allowed a communist party to successfully agitate for revolution, and install a communist...
- Yugoslavia: The State that Withered Away