Socialism: State

Question 1

How do revolutionary socialists see the state?

Answer 1

The state emerges out of the class system, it is used as
an instrument of oppression supporting and defending the interests of the the ruling class. Marxists use the term ‘bourgeois state’, and as such is structurally biased in favour of capital over labour. As a result, a revolution
is needed to completely destroy the old state order and build a new one in which the operates in the interests of the proletariat. Marx called this transitional period the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, eventually the state would ‘wither away’.

‘The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie’ - Marx and Engels.

Question 2

Evolutionary Socialists - how they see the state

Answer 2

The spread of democracy can fundamentally alter the nature of the state power allowing all classes to influence the state.