DOCSLIB.ORG

Leninism, Scientific Socialism, and Democracy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Leninism, Scientific Socialism, and Democracy Leninism, Scientific Socialism, and Democracy Joe Pateman 4281783 MRes Politics School of Politics and International Relations The University of Nottingham 4281783 Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 2 Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................. 4 Background ................................................................................................................................. 4 Argument ................................................................................................................................... 12 Structure .................................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2: Literature review ...................................................................................... 14 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 14 I. Leninism as opportunism ................................................................................................ 14 II. Leninism as Jacobinism ................................................................................................. 16 III. Lenin as a democrat ........................................................................................................ 16 IV. Leninism as a philosophical doctrine ..................................................................... 19 VI. Leninism, scientific socialism and democracy ................................................... 21 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 30 Chapter 3: Leninism, scientific socialism, and epistemic uncertainty .... 31 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 31 I. Dialectical materialism as a ‘philosophy of certainty’ ......................................... 33 II. Lenin, Popper, and fallibilism ....................................................................................... 43 III. Lenin’s fallibilist conception of philosophy and social science ................... 60 IV. Socialism: utopian and scientific .............................................................................. 78 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 82 Chapter 4: Leninism, scientific socialism, and political equality .............. 84 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 84 I. Lenin’s intellectual elitism .............................................................................................. 86 II. Marxism as a proletarian science ............................................................................... 92 III. Lenin’s positivism .......................................................................................................... 117 IV. Lenin’s determinism ..................................................................................................... 122 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 132 Chapter 5: Conclusion ............................................................................................... 134 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 138 1 4281783 Abstract During the twentieth century a number of accounts of Lenin’s theory and practice argued that Leninism is incompatible with democracy. In doing so, various scholars advanced the now popular belief, that the theory of scientific socialism defended by Lenin and prevalent in the Third International is undemocratic. Liberal and conservative critics of socialism are not the only proponents of this argument. Leninism has been criticised on this basis within the currents of Russian Bolshevism, Left Communism and Western Marxism. It is for this reason that the Marxism of Lenin and the Third International has been rejected as dogmatic, vulgar, and positivist: few contemporary Marxists condone dogmatism, vulgarity, or positivism. This dissertation examines and rejects the claim that Lenin’s theory of scientific socialism is anti-democratic. It argues that the Leninist conception of Marxism as a science is compatible with democratic practice, and promotes a democratic conception of socialism. 2 4281783 Abbreviations The abbreviation CW refers to Lenin’s Collected Works. The number following CW refers to the specific volume. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my two supervisors, Dr T. Burns and Dr B. Holland, in addition to my father, J. Pateman, for reading over my manuscript many times, and for providing invaluable advice over the course of the academic year. 3 4281783 Chapter 1: Introduction Background 2017 marks the hundredth year anniversary of the Russian October revolution, during which the Bolshevik party seized state power and began the construction of the world’s first communist state. Historians and political scientists are still discussing the causes and consequences of this momentous event, and a great many many controversies still surround interpretations of it. Despite this multitude of disagreements, scholars of the October revolution and the Soviet Union tend to agree that the Bolshevik party would not have been victorious if it were not for the visionary leadership provided by the communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist Vladimir Lenin, for he alone thought that the objective conditions had matured sufficiently for a revolutionary upheaval. By combining sheer rhetorical force with theoretical ingenuity, Lenin singlehandedly convinced his party and the working class that the time for talking was over, and that the time for revolutionary action had arrived. In doing so, he changed the course of modern world history. Lenin’s influence upon political developments did not end after his death in 1924, however, for his ideas continued to provide the theoretical, organisational and strategic basis for much of the worldwide socialist movement over the course of the twentieth century. This movement succeeded in bringing a third of the world’s population under the rule of 4 4281783 Marxism, and many of these Marxist states proclaimed themselves to be Leninist. Even today Lenin’s ideas continue to influence world politics, for the ruling communist parties of the remaining Marxist countries are still organised upon the Leninist principle of democratic centralism. It is precisely because Lenin’s political thought had and continues to have such a large impact upon politics, that an elucidation of its principles remains as relevant, as important, and as necessary now as it ever did. A fine-grained textual analysis is made even more pressing due to the fact that many of Lenin’s core concepts and ideas have been both misconstrued or consciously distorted by his supporters and critics alike. Although there are various ways of understanding Leninism, the most concise and succinct definition is provided by Joseph Stalin, whose lucid presentation of its fundamentals remains unsurpassed. In The Foundations of Leninism Stalin states that: Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. To be more exact, Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular (Stalin 1953: 73). The first point Stalin makes is that Leninism is the direct continuation of Marxism, that is, the philosophical, political and economic ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. The second point he makes is that Leninism developed during the era of imperialism, a historical phase in the development of 5 4281783 capitalism when the western European nations colonised vast sections of the globe, resulting in world war. The third point he makes is that Leninism is the revolutionary theory of the working class. It describes how the workers will organise themselves into a revolutionary vanguard party, abolish capitalism, and establish the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, which is a transitory stage that precedes the attainment of socialism and communism. As Stalin (1953: 91) rightly points out, Leninism is not just the continuation of Marxism, for ‘Lenin's method is not only the restoration of, but also the concretisation and further development of the critical and revolutionary method of Marx, of his materialist dialectics’. Indeed, Lenin made important philosophical, political, and economic contributions to the foundations that were established by Marx and Engels. This dissertation focuses upon one contribution in particular, that is, his theory of scientific socialism. Like most of Lenin’s political ideas, the term ‘scientific socialism’ has its origins in the works of Marx and Engels, who coined
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Lenin and the Russian Civil War
    Lenin and the Russian Civil War In the months and years after the fall of Tsar Nicholas II’s government, Russia went through incredible, often violent changes. The society was transformed from a peasant society run by an absolute monarchy into a worker’s state run by an all- powerful group that came to be known as the Communist Party. A key to this transformation is Vladimir Lenin. Who Was Lenin? • Born into a wealthy middle-class family background. • Witnessed (when he was 17) the hanging of his brother Aleksandr for revolutionary activity. • Kicked out his university for participating in anti- Tsarist protests. • Took and passed his law exams and served in various law firms in St. Petersburg and elsewhere. • Arrested and sent to Siberia for 3 years for transporting and distributing revolutionary literature. • When WWI started, argued that it should become a revolution of the workers throughout Europe. • Released and lived mostly in exile (Switzerland) until 1917. • Adopted the name “Lenin” (he was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) in exile to hide his activities from the Tsar’s secret police. Lenin and the French Revolution Lenin admired the revolutionaries in France 100 years before his time, though he believed they didn’t go far enough – too much wealth was left in middle class hands. His Bolsheviks used the chaotic and incomplete nature of the French Revolution as a guide - they believed that in order for a communist revolution to succeed, it would need firm leadership from a small group of party leaders – a very different vision from Karl Marx. So, in some ways, Lenin was like Robin Hood – taking from the rich and giving to the poor.
    [Show full text]
  • Colloquium Paper January 12, 1984 STALINISM VERSUS
    Colloquium Paper January 12, 1984 STALINISM VERSUS BOLSHEVISM? A Reconsideration by Robert C. Tucker Princeton University with comment by Peter Reddaway London School of Economics and Political Science Fellows Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Draft paper not for publication or quotation without written permission from the authors. STALINISM VERSUS BOLSHEVISM? A Reconsideration Although not of ten openly debated~ the issue I propose to address is probably the deepest and most divisive in Soviet studies. There is good ground for Stephen Cohen's characterization of it as a "quintessential his­ torical and interpretive question"! because it transcends most of the others and has to do with the whole of Russia's historical development since the Bolshevik Revolution. He formulates it as the question of the relationship "between Bolshevism and Stalinism.'' Since the very existence of something properly called Stalinism is at issue here, I prefer a somewhat different mode of formulation. There are two (and curiously, only two) basically opposed positions on the course of development that Soviet Russia took starting around 1929 when Stalin, having ousted his opponents on the Left and the Right, achieved primacy, although not yet autocratic primacy, within the Soviet regime. The first position, Which may be seen as the orthodox one, sees that course of development as the fulfillment, under new conditions, of Lenin's Bolshevism. All the main actions taken by the Soviet regime under Stalin's leadership were, in other words, the fulfillment of what had been prefigured in Leninism (as Lenin's Bolshevism came to be called after Lenin died).
    [Show full text]
  • The Russian Revolutions: the Impact and Limitations of Western Influence
    Dickinson College Dickinson Scholar Faculty and Staff Publications By Year Faculty and Staff Publications 2003 The Russian Revolutions: The Impact and Limitations of Western Influence Karl D. Qualls Dickinson College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications Part of the European History Commons Recommended Citation Qualls, Karl D., "The Russian Revolutions: The Impact and Limitations of Western Influence" (2003). Dickinson College Faculty Publications. Paper 8. https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications/8 This article is brought to you for free and open access by Dickinson Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Karl D. Qualls The Russian Revolutions: The Impact and Limitations of Western Influence After the collapse of the Soviet Union, historians have again turned their attention to the birth of the first Communist state in hopes of understanding the place of the Soviet period in the longer sweep of Russian history. Was the USSR an aberration from or a consequence of Russian culture? Did the Soviet Union represent a retreat from westernizing trends in Russian history, or was the Bolshevik revolution a product of westernization? These are vexing questions that generate a great deal of debate. Some have argued that in the late nineteenth century Russia was developing a middle class, representative institutions, and an industrial economy that, while although not as advanced as those in Western Europe, were indications of potential movement in the direction of more open government, rule of law, free market capitalism. Only the Bolsheviks, influenced by an ideology imported, paradoxically, from the West, interrupted this path of Russian political and economic westernization.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxist Leninist Position on Death Penalty
    Marxist Leninist Position On Death Penalty Tyson is braced and letting prudishly as deplorable Kelwin orchestrates boundlessly and pargeted unceremoniously. Alarmist Edwin installs paniculately. Plectognathous Weber skewers some wases and unwind his crystalloid so insubstantially! This view not been first attacked by Plekhanov in the 10s. This document is written read the Communist Party of India Maoist and is. Lenin's Legacy The Statesman. The conclusion I undertake is reluctant on the Marxist-Leninist view equality of incomes is. Save Kulbhushan Jadhav Communist Party of India Marxist. Socialism in of its forms Marxism-Leninism in the Soviet Union Maoism. Opposition to the government is prohibited which it why Hitler killed socialists and communist prior to becoming fuhrer and placed others in. Explicit condemnation of Marxism-Leninism and its emphatic denunciation of unrestrained. Marx's Concept of Socialism Oxford Handbooks. Death penalties 2066637 sentences for 01 year 4362973 for 25 years 1611293 for 610 years and 26795 for sure than 10 years. Social Justice Critical Race Theory Marxism and Biblical. Get access to defeat mass of death penalty on the death penalty only thing. Lenin in context by L Proyect Columbia University. Same position partially as a result of making their death penalty discretionary. At our both the atoms that formed the body like those that formed the soul. The Role of Prisons in a Socialist Future. Introduced the death penalty be the khishchenie plundering or embezzlement. But turnover is stretch only if educated liberal opinion simply this not revolve about tyranny. Trotsky held steady this tree until Adolf Hitler became general of.
    [Show full text]
  • The Embattled Political Aesthetics of José Carlos Mariátegui and Amauta
    A Realist Indigenism: The Embattled Political Aesthetics of José Carlos Mariátegui and Amauta BY ERIN MARIA MADARIETA B.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 THESIS Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Chicago, 2019 Chicago, Illinois Defense Committee: Blake Stimson, Art History, Advisor and Chair Andrew Finegold, Art History Nicholas Brown, English Margarita Saona, Hispanic and Italian Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………...1 BEYOND THE “SECTARIAN DIVIDE”: MARIÁTEGUI’S EXPANSIVE REALISM………..9 TOWARD A REALIST INDIGENISM: PARSING MARXISM, INDIGENISM, AND POPULISM………………………………………………………………………………………33 “THE PROBLEM OF RACE IN LATIN AMERICA”: MARIÁTEGUI AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISTS…………………………………………………………...53 “PAINTING THE PEOPLE” OR DEMYSTIFYING PERUVIAN REALITY?: AMAUTA’S VISUAL CONTENT…………………………………………………………………………….65 CONCLUSION…………………………….…………………………………………………….88 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………..92 ii SUMMARY This thesis focuses on José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930), a Peruvian critic and Marxist political activist who founded the Peruvian Socialist Party. Mariátegui also edited the journal Amauta, which featured literature, visual art, and theoretical and political texts from 1926 to 1930. This project aims to contribute an original understanding of the thought and editorial practice of this historically significant figure by recuperating his endorsement of realist
    [Show full text]
  • Lenin and the Debate on Chinese Socialism Among PRC Soviet-Watchers in Early 1980S China
    InternationalLenin Journal and the Debateof China on Chinese Studies Socialism among PRC Soviet-watchers 145 Vol. 11, No. 1, June 2020, pp. 145-171 Lenin and the Debate on Chinese Socialism among PRC Soviet-watchers in Early 1980s China Jie Li* The University of Edinburgh Abstract After the death of Chairman Mao Zedong, when China gradually initiated reform and open door policies, Soviet leaders’ political agendas were no less appealing to post-Mao China than were Western agendas. This paper will show that Chinese scholars made tactical use of the writings and programs of Vladimir Lenin; this was done to grasp the nettle of Chinese socialism in the early 1980s, after the disastrous Cultural Revolution. According to the secondary scholarship, Chinese Sovietology after 1991 has consistently emphasized the role of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his policies, which (in the eyes of the Chinese communist regime) brought about the downfall of the Soviet empire. In reality, however, Chinese Soviet-watchers were researching various Soviet leaders throughout the 1980s and 1990s – and particularly Lenin, who featured prominently in Chinese writings and claimed equal importance to Gorbachev. In the early 1980s, Chinese scholars used the first Soviet leader, Lenin, and his writings to rebuild faith in socialism and to disperse scepticism of the Chinese communist regime after the disastrous Mao era. While some pieces of work resorted to using Lenin’s socialist humanism to attack Maoism and Chinese communist rule, most of the time Chinese scholars used Lenin to strengthen the weakening legitimacy of Chinese socialism without tarnishing the image of Mao, and to command support for new leader Deng Xiaoping’s open door policy and future reforms.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of Albania During the Enver Hoxha Era
    Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe Volume 40 Issue 6 Article 8 8-2020 State-Sponsored Atheism: The Case of Albania during the Enver Hoxha Era İbrahim Karataş Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree Part of the Eastern European Studies Commons, Policy History, Theory, and Methods Commons, Religion Commons, and the Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons Recommended Citation Karataş, İbrahim (2020) "State-Sponsored Atheism: The Case of Albania during the Enver Hoxha Era," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 40 : Iss. 6 , Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol40/iss6/8 This Peer-Reviewed Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STATE-SPONSORED ATHEISM: THE CASE OF ALBANIA DURING THE ENVER HOXHA ERA By İbrahim Karataş İbrahim Karataş graduated from the Department of International Relations at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara in 2001. He took his master’s degree from the Istanbul Sababattin Zaim University in the Political Science and International Relations Department in 2017. He subsequently finished his Ph.D. program from the same department and the same university in 2020. Karataş also worked in an aviation company before switching to academia. He is also a professional journalist in Turkey. His areas of study are the Middle East, security, and migration. ORCID: 0000-0002-2125-1840.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution India and the Contemporary World Society Ofthefuture
    Socialism in Europe and II the Russian Revolution Chapter 1 The Age of Social Change In the previous chapter you read about the powerful ideas of freedom and equality that circulated in Europe after the French Revolution. The French Revolution opened up the possibility of creating a dramatic change in the way in which society was structured. As you have read, before the eighteenth century society was broadly divided into estates and orders and it was the aristocracy and church which controlled economic and social power. Suddenly, after the revolution, it seemed possible to change this. In many parts of the world including Europe and Asia, new ideas about individual rights and who olution controlled social power began to be discussed. In India, Raja v Rammohan Roy and Derozio talked of the significance of the French Revolution, and many others debated the ideas of post-revolutionary Europe. The developments in the colonies, in turn, reshaped these ideas of societal change. ian Re ss Not everyone in Europe, however, wanted a complete transformation of society. Responses varied from those who accepted that some change was necessary but wished for a gradual shift, to those who wanted to restructure society radically. Some were ‘conservatives’, others were ‘liberals’ or ‘radicals’. What did these terms really mean in the context of the time? What separated these strands of politics and what linked them together? We must remember that these terms do not mean the same thing in all contexts or at all times. We will look briefly at some of the important political traditions of the nineteenth century, and see how they influenced change.
    [Show full text]
  • Bevir the Making of British Socialism.Indb
    Copyrighted Material CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Socialism and History “We Are All Socialists Now: The Perils and Promise of the New Era of Big Government” ran the provocative cover of Newsweek on 11 Feb­ ruary 2009. A financial crisis had swept through the economy. Several small banks had failed. The state had intervened, pumping money into the economy, bailing out large banks and other failing financial institu­ tions, and taking shares and part ownership in what had been private companies. The cover of Newsweek showed a red hand clasping a blue one, implying that both sides of the political spectrum now agreed on the importance of such state action. Although socialism is making headlines again, there seems to be very little understanding of its nature and history. The identification of social­ ism with “big government” is, to say the least, misleading. It just is not the case that when big business staggers and the state steps in, you have socialism. Historically, socialists have often looked not to an enlarged state but to the withering away of the state and the rise of nongovern­ mental societies. Even when socialists have supported state intervention, they have generally focused more on promoting social justice than on simply bailing out failing financial institutions. A false identification of socialism with big government is a staple of dated ideological battles. The phrase “We are all socialists now” is a quo­ tation from a British Liberal politician of the late nineteenth century. Sir William Harcourt used it when a land reform was passed with general acceptance despite having been equally generally denounced a few years earlier as “socialist.” Moreover, Newsweek’s cover was not the first echo of Harcourt’s memorable phrase.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise and Fall of World Communism 1917–Present
    The Rise and Fall of World Communism 1917–Present CHAPTER OVERVIEW CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES • To examine the nature of the Russian and Chinese revolutions and how the differences between those revolutions affected the introduction of communist regimes in those countries • To consider how communist states developed, especially in the USSR and the People’s Republic of China • To consider the benefits of a communist state • To consider the harm caused by the two great communist states of the twentieth century • To introduce students to the cold war and its major issues • To explore the reasons why communism collapsed in the USSR and China • To consider how we might assess the communist experience . and to inquire if historians should be asking such questions about moral judgment CHAPTER OUTLINE I. Opening Vignette A. The Berlin Wall was breached on November 9, 1989. 1. built in 1961 to seal off East Berlin from West Berlin 2. became a major symbol of communist tyranny B. Communism had originally been greeted by many as a promise of liberation. 1. communist regimes had transformed their societies 2. provided a major political/ideological threat to the Western world a. the cold war (1946–1991) b. scramble for influence in the third world between the United States and the USSR c. massive nuclear arms race 3. and then it collapsed II. Global Communism A. Communism had its roots in nineteenth-century socialism, inspired by Karl Marx. 1. most European socialists came to believe that they could achieve their goals through the democratic process 2. those who defined themselves as “communists” in the twentieth century advocated revolution 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialism in One Country” Promoting National Identity Based on Class Identification
    “Socialism in One Country” Promoting National Identity Based on Class Identification IVAN SZPAKOWSKI The Russian Empire of the Romanovs spanned thousands of miles from the Baltic to the Pacific, with a population of millions drawn from dozens of ethnic groups. Following the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks inherited the problem of holding together such a heterogeneous body. At the same time, they were forced to uphold Marxist ideology demanding worldwide revolution of the proletariat while facing the reality that despite the turmoil following the First World War no such revolution was forthcoming. In 1924 the rising Joseph Stalin, along with Nikolai Bukharin, devised the theory of “Socialism in One Country” which would become the solution to many of these problems facing the Bolsheviks. First of all, it proclaimed the ability of socialism to succeed in the Soviet Union alone, without foreign aid. Additionally, it marked a change from Lenin’s policy of self-determination for the Soviet Union’s constituent nations to Stalin’s policy of a compulsory unitary state. These non-Russian ethnics were systematically and firmly incorporated into the Soviet Union by the promotion of a proletariat class mentality. The development of the theory and policy of “Socialism in One Country” thus served to forge the unitary national identity of the Soviet Union around the concept of common Soviet class identity. The examination of this policy’s role in building a new form of national identity is dependant on a variety of sources, grouped into several subject areas. First, the origin of the term “Socialism in One Country,” its original meaning and its interpretation can be found in the speeches and writings of prominent contemporary communist leaders, chief among them: Stalin and Trotsky.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl Marx's Thoughts on Functional Income Distribution - a Critical Analysis
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Herr, Hansjörg Working Paper Karl Marx's thoughts on functional income distribution - a critical analysis Working Paper, No. 101/2018 Provided in Cooperation with: Berlin Institute for International Political Economy (IPE) Suggested Citation: Herr, Hansjörg (2018) : Karl Marx's thoughts on functional income distribution - a critical analysis, Working Paper, No. 101/2018, Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE), Berlin This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/175885 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu Institute for International Political Economy Berlin Karl Marx’s thoughts on functional income distribution – a critical analysis Author: Hansjörg Herr Working Paper, No.
    [Show full text]