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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46106 MASTERS THESIS M-8406 TRUCHIL, Barry Elliot THE STATE AFTER CAPITALISM. The American University, M.A., 1976 Sociology, socialism, communism and anarchism Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48io6 THE STATE AFTER CAPITALISM by Barry E. Truchil Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Sociology Signatures of Committee / Chairman: ________________________ 0 Dean of the College ^ (Vit Date : Date 1975 The American University Washington, D.C. 20016 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 5" / 7 g TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ................................................. 1 II. THE STATE IN SOCIOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY . ; . 3 Origin of S t a t e ................ 3 III. THE MARXIST MODEL OF THE STATE .............................. 11 General Marxist Theory of the State ..................... 11 Historical Model ................ 13 Conclusion................................................ 28 IV. THE SOCIALIST STATE IN T H E O R Y .............................. 29 Role of P r o l e t a r i a t ...................................... 29 Withering or Transcendence ................................ 31 Dictatorship of the Proletariat ......................... 35 Conclusion ........................................ 40 V. THE PARIS COMMUNE— A NECESSARY FAILURE ...................... 43 Introduction .............................................. 43 Pre-Commune Conditions....................... 43 French Working Class Movement . ..................... 47 The Beginning of the Commune ............................. 51 Composition and Influences of the Commune ............... 53 Political Measures ........................................ 56 Fall of the C o m m u n e ...................................... 65 Paris Commune as Dictatorship of Proletariat ............. 68 The Effect of the Paris Commune on T h e o r y ............... 70 Conclusion .......................................... 72 VI. THE BOLSHEVIK EXPERIENCE.................................... 75 Conditions Leading to the Growth of the Bureaucracy . 76 Dictatorship of the Proletariat to Dictatorship of the P a r t y ............ 83 Conclusion....................... 100 VII. CONCLUSION...................................................... 103 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................... Ill 11 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This thesis will investigate two controversial aspects of the sociological theory of the state. The first aspect is the question of the "withering away of the state" and the allied notion of the "dic­ tatorship of the proletariat." The thesis will also investigate the relationship between these two concepts in theory and actual practice. In Marxian social theory, the founders, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, did not detail out the meanings, analytical usages, and social implications of these concepts. Successive writers and social theo­ rists have since given these two concepts differing and conflicting interpretations. Marx, writing on the structure and dynamics of capitalist society, did not spell out, except in outline form, the character of society and the state after capitalism. The differing and controversial interpretations of the concept are in part predicated upon the small attention that Marx and Engels paid to the elaboration of the two concepts. Thus, the meanings, usages, and applications of these two concepts will be investigated in the thesis in an attempt to gain greater clarity in the Marxian sociological model. This task is to be accomplished by examining three interrelated aspects: first, the social scientific theory of the state, its origins and history and its development in capitalist society; second, the theory of the withering away of the state in socialist society, along with the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat and its role as a transitional state in the withering away process; and third, an investigation of these concepts in actual practice in historical instances. In regard to the first task, a review and analysis of the anthropological-sociological literature and data emphasizing the origins and development of the state will be undertaken and will constitute the first part of the thesis. With respect to the second task, a review and analysis of the major theoretical works and correspondence of Marx and Engels in relation to the two concepts will be reviewed. In addi­ tion, secondary sociological commentary on the subject will be utilized and evaluated. These two efforts will constitute the second section of the thesis. The third task— examining the origins of the socialist state in theory with actual historical events— will constitute the last substantive section of the thesis. The most appropriate method to accomplish this is a thorough review and analysis of the concrete his­ torical instances— the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Bolshevik revolu­ tion of 1917— which have been described as dictatorships of the proletariat respectively by Marx and Engels and the later Marxian theorists. This is in essence an examination of the actual putting into practice the transitional state form. In this historical analysis, there will be an attempt to delineate the social conditions facilitating and/or obstructing the process of the withering away of the state. In the conclusion, there will be an evaluation of these concepts in theory as well as their usage in relationship to these historical events. In addition, proposals for future research will be introduced. CHAPTER II THE STATE IN SOCIOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY This chapter focuses on the sociological and anthropological theories on the origin of the state. The conditions upon which the state emerged is a key question if one is to understand how the state can wither away, as hypothesized by Marxist theory. This inquiry will be investigated through a review of the major literature in anthropo­ logical and sociological theory on the origin of the state. Origin of State The literature reveals that there have been stateless societies. The noted anthropologist, Lewis Henry Morgan, distinguished social organizations, which were founded on gentes, phratries, and tribes,"^ 2 and political society, which is "founded upon territory and property." The former deals with members of that society through kinship relations, the latter on a territorial-residential basis (state, city, etc.). This 3 4 view of stateless society is also found in Durkheira, Hobhouse, and ^Lewis Henry Morgan, Ancient Society (Cleveland: World Pub­ lishing Company, 1877), p. 6. ^Ibid., p. 61. 3 Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (New York; Free Press, 1933). 4 Hobhouse, in T. B. Bottomore, Sociology; A Guide to Literature and Problems (New York: Vintage Books, 1972), p. 152. 3 Malinowski,^ as well as others.^ I. Schapera observes that governments have not always existed in history. Stateless societies were food- gathering societies,^ which "lacked any institutional organization of g the kind found in the modern Western state." This refers to a cen­ tralized authority, with the power (as Max Weber argues, the legitimate 9 monopoly of the use of force) to maintain law and order and to regulate life. Schapera, with Morgan, agrees that in "primitive societies, kin­ ship is often much more important than among ourselves in the regulation of public llfe."^^ Elman Service establishes a transitional form of political organization— the chiefdom— which is numerous enough in the world