Socialist state

This article is about Marxist term to describe a purported base and superstructural relation that a communist state reaches. For communist form of government, see Communist state. For a list of self-proclaimed socialist states, see List of socialist states. For constitutional references to socialism in liberal democratic states, see Socialism in liberal democratic constitutions.

A socialist state is a purported base and superstructural relation that a communist state reaches. The base of the socialist state is the socialist mode of production. The superstructure is the class character of the state, which is the dictatorship of the proletariat (or a variant thereof) in which the proletariat acts as the ruling class. The exception to this rule was the Soviet Union. From 1961 onwards, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) argued it had created a developed socialist society where the proletarian dictatorship had been replaced by a socialist state of the whole people since all the exploitative classes had been defeated. The Communist Party of China vehemently opposed this theory and argued that every state formation had to have a ruling class.

The majority of communist states have been unable to establish a socialist state system. These states had, according to Marxist–Leninist teachings, reached a lower form of development and designated themselves, or were designated, for example, as states of socialist orientation or as people's democratic states.

Political theories

Marxist theory of the state

Main article: Marx's theory of the state

Karl Marx and subsequent thinkers in the Marxist tradition conceive of the state as representing the interests of the ruling class, partially out of material necessity for the smooth operation of the modes of production it presides over. Marxists trace the formation of the contemporary form of the sovereign state to the emergence of capitalism as a dominant mode of production, with its organizational precepts and functions designed specifically to manage and regulate the affairs of a capitalist economy. Because this involves governance and laws passed in the interest of the bourgeoisie as a whole, and because government officials either come from the bourgeoisie or are dependent upon their interests, Marx characterized the capitalist state as a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Extrapolating from this, Marx described a post-revolutionary government on the part of the working class or proletariat as a dictatorship of the proletariat because the economic interests of the proletariat would have to guide state affairs and policy during a transitional state. Alluding further to the establishment of a socialist economy where social ownership displaces private ownership and thus, class distinctions on the basis of private property ownership are eliminated, the modern state would have no function and would gradually "wither away" or be transformed into a new form of governance.

Influenced by the pre-Marxist utopian socialist philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon, Friedrich Engels theorized the nature of the state would change during the transition to socialism. Both Saint-Simon and Engels described a transformation of the state from an entity primarily concerned with political rule over people (via coercion and law creation) to a scientific "administration of things" that would be concerned with directing processes of production in a socialist society, essentially ceasing to be a state. Although Marx never referred to a socialist state, he argued that the working class would have to take control of the state apparatus and machinery of government in order to transition out of capitalism and to socialism. The dictatorship of the proletariat would represent this transitional state and would involve working class interests dominating government policy in the same manner that capitalist class interests dominate government policy under capitalism (the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie). Engels argued that as socialism developed, the state would change in form and function. Under socialism, it is not a "government of people, but the administration of things", thereby ceasing to be a state by the traditional definition. With the fall of the Paris Commune, Marx cautiously argued in The Civil War in France that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes. The centralized state power, with its ubiquitous organs of standing army, police, bureaucracy, clergy, and judicature—organs wrought after the plan of a systematic and hierarchic division of labor originates from the days of absolute monarchy, serving nascent middle class society as a mighty weapon in its struggle against feudalism". In other words, "the centralized state power inherited by the bourgeoisie from the absolute monarchy necessarily assumes, in the course of the intensifying struggles between capital and labor, 'more and more the character of the national power of capital over labour, of a public organized for social enslavement, of an engine of class despotism'".

One of the most influential modern visions of a transitional state representing proletarian interests was based on the Paris Commune, in which the workers and working poor took control of the city of Paris in 1871 in reaction to the Franco-Prussian War. Marx described the Paris Commune as the prototype for a revolutionary government of the future, "the form at last discovered" for the emancipation of the proletariat. Engels noted that "all officials, high or low, were paid only the wages received by other workers. [...] In this way, an effective barrier to place-hunting and careerism was set up". Commenting on the nature of the state, Engels continued: "From the outset, the Commune was compelled to recognize that the working class, once come to power, could not manage with the old state machine". In order not to be overthrown once having conquered power, Engels argues that the working class "must, on the one hand, do away with all the old repressive machinery previously used against it itself, and, on the other, safeguard itself against its own deputies and officials, by declaring them all, without exception, subject to recall at any moment". Engels argued such a state would be a temporary affair and suggested a new generation brought up in "new and free social conditions" will be able to "throw the entire lumber of the state on the scrap-heap".

Leninist theory of the state

Main article: Leninism

Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union and the leader of the Bolshevik party.

Leon Trotsky, founder of the Red Army and a key figure in the October Revolution.

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 principles of democratic centralism. Adapted to the conditions of semi-feudal Russia, Lenin's concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat involved a revolutionary vanguard party acting as representatives of the proletariat and its interests. According to Lenin's April Theses, the goal of the revolution and vanguard party is not the introduction of socialism (it could only be established on a worldwide scale), but to bring production and the state under the control of the soviets of workers' deputies. Following the October Revolution in Russia, the Bolsheviks consolidated their power and sought to control and direct the social and economic affairs of the state and broader Russian society to safeguard against counterrevolutionary insurrection, foreign invasion, and to promote socialist consciousness among the Russian population while simultaneously promoting economic development.

These ideas were adopted by Lenin in 1917 just prior to the October Revolution in Russia and published in The State and Revolution. With the failure of the worldwide revolution, or at least European revolution, envisaged by Lenin and Leon Trotsky, the Russian Civil War and finally, Lenin's death, war measures that were deemed to be temporary, such as forced requisition of food and the lack of democratic control, became permanent and a tool to boost Joseph Stalin's power, leading to the emergence of Marxism–Leninism and Stalinism, as well as the notion that socialism can be created and exist in a single state with theory of socialism in one country.

Lenin argued that as socialism is replaced by communism, the state would "wither away" as strong centralized control progressively reduces as local communities gain more empowerment. As he put it succinctly, "[s]o long as the state exists, there is no freedom. When there will be freedom, there will be no state". In this way, Lenin was thereby proposing a classically dynamic view of progressive social structure which, during his own short period of governance, emerged as a defensive and preliminary bureaucratic centralist stage. He regarded this structural paradox as the necessary preparation for and antithesis of the desired workers' state which he forecast would follow.

Remaining socialist states

For a more comprehensive list, see List of communist states.

Overview of current socialist states

Country/Territory	Establishment	Party	Note
China	1949	Chinese Communist Party	With free market reforms progressively implemented from the government of Deng Xiaoping, up to the current socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Cuba	1961	Communist Party of Cuba	Initially, with a political-economic system one-party and statist. After the fall of the Soviet Union and with the end of Comecon, Cuba progressively adopted some market reforms to allow private property in certain sectors.
North Korea	1948	Workers' Party of Korea	The official state ideology is Juche, which is based on Marxism–Leninism. although his successor and son Kim Jong Un partly reversed this policy.
Vietnam	1976	Communist Party of Vietnam	From the economic opening known as Đổi Mới, Vietnam practices the so-called socialist-oriented market economy.

See also

• Legislatures in communist states
• Soviet democracy
• Soviet (council)

• Soviet Republic (disambiguation)
• Soviet republic (system of government)
• Wa State