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Complicating this is the fact that Marx's own ideas about the state changed as he grew older, differing in his early pre-communist phase, in the young Marx phase which predates the unsuccessful 1848 uprisings in Europe, and in his later work. Marx initially followed an evolutionary theory of the state.
In Marxist theory, the state is "the institution of organised violence which is used by the ruling class of a country to maintain the conditions of its rule. Thus, it is only in a society which is divided between hostile social classes that the state exists". [15] The state is seen as a mechanism dominated by the interests of the ruling class.
The withering away of the state is based on the Marxist definition of the state: a special coercive force by which one class holds another in subjection, a "product and a manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms." [3] The ruling class, the one which owns means of production, is the one which commands the state.
Karl Marx criticized liberalism as not democratic enough and found the unequal social situation of the workers during the Industrial Revolution undermined the democratic agency of citizens. [13] Marxists differ in their positions towards democracy. [14] [15] controversy over Marx's legacy today turns largely on its ambiguous relation to democracy
A state should not be confused with a government; a government is an organization that has been granted the authority to act on the behalf of a state. [22] Nor should a state be confused with a society; a society refers to all organized groups, movements, and individuals who are independent of the state and seek to remain out of its influence.
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 9 January 2025. Economic and sociopolitical worldview For the political ideology commonly associated with states governed by communist parties, see Marxism–Leninism. Karl Marx, after whom Marxism is named Part of a series on Marxism Theoretical works Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 The ...
Marx left a personal estate valued for probate at £250, [210] equivalent to £38,095 in 2024. [211] Upon his own death in 1895, Engels left Marx's two surviving daughters a "significant portion" of his considerable estate, valued in 2024 at US$6.8 million. [191] Marx and his family were reburied on a new site nearby in November 1954.
Whereas Marx, Engels, and classical Marxist thinkers had little to say about the organization of the state in a socialist society, presuming the modern state to be specific to the capitalist mode of production, Vladimir Lenin pioneered the idea of a revolutionary state based on his theory of the revolutionary vanguard party and organizational ...