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The dictatorship of the proletariat is defined by Marxist theory as the use of state power by the working class against its enemies during the passage from capitalism to communism, entailing control of the state apparatus and the means of production. Though under Stalin the phrase came to be understood as a dictatorship in the name of the proletariat, the original meaning was a workers' democracy where the working class would be in power, rather than the capitalist class. This concept was used (and, some would claim, abused) in Communist countries, which claimed to implement a dictatorship of the proletariat, in order to justify the state exercise of power to suppress all opposition (see totalitarianism), allegedly done on behalf of the workers. Critics, particularly anti-communists and non-Marxist communists (but also many Marxist communists, especially Trotskyists), contend that this principle has been used as a justification for granting sweeping powers to a new ruling elite. These critics maintain that it is not the working class which uses state power in historical "Communist countries", but a new elite more cruel and corrupt than the old ruling class it replaces (see nomenklatura). As a follow-up to this argument, some critics refuse to use the label "communist" for those countries or their ruling parties, and call them Stalinist instead.
Prior to 1871Events January January 18 The member-states of the North German Confederation unite into a single nation-state known as the German Empire. The King of Prussia is declared the first German Emperor as Wilhelm I of Germany. January 28 France surrenders to en, Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx ( May 5, 1818 March 14, 1883) was an influential German economist, philosopher, social and political theorist. Although Marx addressed many issues in his career as a journalist and philosopher, he is most famous for his analysis of hist said little about what in practice would characterize a "dictatorship of the proletariat", believing that planning in advance the details of a future socialist system constituted the fallacy of "utopian socialism." Marx used the term "dictatorship" to describe control by an entire class (rather than a single sovereign individual) over another class. Thus Marx called capitalism the dictatorship of the bourgeoisieThe bourgeoisie is one of the wealthy classes into which a capitalist society is typically divided, according to certain western schools of economic thought, especially Marxism. The term is a French word derived from the Italian borghesia (from borgo vill, which he believed would be superseded by socialismFor information on mainstream political parties using the term "Socialist", see Social democracy and Democratic socialism For the governments of the USSR, the PRC, and others, see: Communist state Other variants of Socialism include Marxism, Communism, an (the dictatorship of the proletariat), which in turn would be superseded by a classless and stateless society known as communism. He viewed the dictatorship of the proletariat as only an intermediate stage, believing that governments, that is to say the use of state power of one class over another, would disappear once the classes themselves had disappeared.
However, although Marx did not plan out the details of how such a dictatorship would be implemented, he did point to the Paris CommuneThe term Paris Commune originally referred to the government of Paris during the French Revolution. However, the term more commonly refers to the socialist government that briefly ruled Paris from March 26 to May 30, 1871. The Paris Commune of 1871 was ma of 1871Events January January 18 The member-states of the North German Confederation unite into a single nation-state known as the German Empire. The King of Prussia is declared the first German Emperor as Wilhelm I of Germany. January 28 France surrenders to en as an example of a society in his own lifetime that put his ideas into practice. In his work "The Civil War in France," Marx praised the government of the Paris Commune. Frederick Engels, in his 1891 postscript to the work, summarized this position, and praised the democratic features of this government, when he wrote: "In this first place, it filled all posts -- administrative, judicial, and educational -- by election on the basis of universal suffrage of all concerned, with the right of the same electors to recall their delegate at any time. And in the second place, all officials, high or low, were paid only the wages received by other workers." Engels argued that the working class, once in power, had to "do away with all the old repressive machinery previously used against it itself," and that it must "safeguard itself against its own deputies and officials, by declaring them all, without exception, subject to recall at any moment." In praising the Paris Commune, and at the same time defending his concept of a dictatorship of the proletariat, Engels said: "Of late, the Social-Democratic philistine has once more been filled with wholesome terror at the words: Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Well and good, gentlemen, do you want to know what this dictatorship looks like? Look at the Paris Commune. That was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat."
The Paris Commune, however, was short lived, and no other serious attempt at implementing Marx's ideas was made during his lifetime. After Marx, the concept of a dictatorship of the proletariat was later altered and defined by many Marxist groups who adopted Lenin's theory documented in his brochure State and Revolution. Lenin believed that the political form of the Paris Commune was revived in the councils of workers and soldiers that appeared after the 1905 Russian revolution and called themselves soviets. However, the Bolsheviks later adopted very different forms of the "dictatorship of the proletariat", and used the concept to justify limiting the acceptable range of political discourse.
Marxists disagree among themselves on whether any of the "Marxist" regimes that came to power in the 20th century actually implemented in practice what Marx considered to be such a dictatorship. In general, these regimes have utilized state power in ways which, critics argue, oppress workers just as much as the old regime, thus becoming not a government which serves the proletariat but rather oppresses it.
