[lbo-talk] Unproductive Workers = The Best Organized in the USA

[Marvin Gandall]

I suppose the best example we have of the "relative autonomy" of the state
is the Soviet one, whose representatives rose far above the classes which
lifted them to power, although "state capitalists" would say it represented
the appearance of a new ruling class. That debate has been superceded by
history, and is only of academic interest now.
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Micheal H wrote:


> or instrumental view, recall miliband/poulantzas debate from several
> decades ago, although former view was most starkly stated by lenin
> in _state and revolution_ that the state is simply 'an instrument for
> the oppression of the exploited class', no state 'relative autonomy'
> state to be found in that conceptualization
>
> marx and engels write in the _communist manifesto_ that 'the executive
> of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common
> affairs of the whole bourgeoisie' (m&e are much more instrumental in the
> _german ideology_ where they characterize the state as a mechanism used
> by the capitalist class to sustain its hegemony)...
>
> as for _manifesto_ remark about 'exectuve committee, focus should be on
> 'executive'...
>
> marx writes in _18th Brumaire_, that executive power, in contrast to
> legislative,
> expresses heteronomy, in contrast to autonomy (in other words, not
> self-governing
> or self-determining), he also refers twice in the same work to
> 'parliamentary
> cretinism' by which he means self-deception of powerless assemblies
> vis-a-vis
> executive...
>
> for marx, legislature is 'contested terrain', thus, he could call passage
> of england's '10
> hours' bill not just a great practical accomplishment, but a victory for
> the principle of
> 'political economy of the working class' (_inaugural address to the
> international working
> men's association_)...
>
> km wanted executive power subjected to as many controls as possible, in
> his view,
> such authority in the paris commune was delegated to sub-groups of the
> assembly
> and subject to immediate recall, he writes in _the civil war in france_
> that the
> commune was an both executive and legislative body...
>
> rightly or wrongly, marx opposed separation of powers, which he refers to
> as
> 'worm-eaten' theory in _Crisis and Counter-Revolution_ moreover, he calls
> division of power  'old constitutional folly' in _the constitution of the
> french
> republic_, going on to say in that essay unity of powers is basis of
> 'free'
> government...   mh