Monday, February 9, 2015

session 4 The State

Is the State a negative structure that must be smashed altogether?

The answer to this question lies in the Communist ideology proposed  by Karl Marx. Who believed that the when a state exists there is a natural dis balance between the haves and the have nots and that is an unfair division. The ruling elite as he puts them, the ‘bourgeoisie’ exploit the workers of the factors of production ‘proletariat.’

“workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains”

This in essence, is what karl Marx and believers of communist propose. They believe that there will be a reeducation which will lead to the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ and eventually in a perfect communist society, there will be no need for a state and the state will eventually wither away.

While this seems like a good concept, it remains Utopian. Even in history during the peak of communism the communist countries like Russia or China never reached a point where the state ceased to exist. Even the revolutionaries of communism believe that a state is required initially for the society during the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat.’


So, the question that this arises is whether in reality is it even possible to ‘smash’ states altogether no matter how much of a negative structure they are?

3 comments:

Naush said...

As you note, it does seem unlikely that states will disappear even if there was to be a communist revolution.

Unknown said...

I agree with Maryam and Sir that it is highly unlikely that a state will disappear altogether no matter how bad the governance is because a higher authority is always required for the state to survive. Though the power may reside with different groups of people and the structure of the state may change over time but it will not cease to exist.

Unknown said...

States can never disappear because we always need some authority on us to control the society. Locke has rightly said that "where there is no law there is no freedom."Because when there is no authority people start to misuse power and it is the duty of the state to assure that it should not happen.