The role of the state

[Charles Brown]

Lenin elucidates the Marxist position on 
this issue in _The State and
Revolution_. The state does not whither away
until communism or the second phase of
communism. In the first phase, there remains
a state for the repression of the bourgeoisie.
While there remain bourgeois states , there
must still exist socialist states for defense.
The latter point clears up a lot of confusion
that arises as to how rapidly Leninists would
anticipate the state whithering away in
the Soviet Union or other  socialist 
countries ( not until there is world
wide socialism and no bourgeois states).

Engels defined the state in _The Origin of
the Family, Private Property and the State_
as a special repressive apparatus  (standing
bodies of armes personnel, prisons, etc.) 
which arose
with exploitive class relations, by which the
ruling class maintains its dominance.
With the end of classes, the state becomes
superfluous and whithers away , more than
being affirmatively abolished.

Lenin emphasizes the interesting point that 
democracy is a form of the state. So strictly
speaking, Engels argued, there is no such
thing as a "People's State". The
form of organization in communism is not
democracy. With
the whithering away of the state in communism
there is merely the administration of things. 

Charles Brown

Detroit

In article <4.0.1.19981016180709.00dce3e0 at popmail.lmu.edu>, James Devine
<jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu> writes


>I interpret Marx's bit about the withering away of the state as
>referring to the end of the separation -- the alienation -- of the people
>from the state and the end of the domination of the former by the latter.
>That is, the perfection of democracy.

Engels used the phrase withering away of the state; Marx used the more
logically succinct "abolish" in this context. You may interpret Engels
or Marx's statements as the end of the separation of people from the
state, but there is no evidence that this is what Marx or Engels meant. 
In fact, the evidence from both strongly suggests that post-capitalist
will be stateless.
-- 
Lew