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