How is social democratic perspective of state different from marxist perspective?

Answer 1

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry based upon a materialist interpretation of historical development, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis of class-relations within society and their application in the analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. In the mid-to-late 19th century,

There is no one Marxist theory of the state, different currents within Marxism have developed their own variants. However all share the idea that the State can, and must, be used as a means towards achieving the classless society. There are very few - apart from whatever Trotskyist groups are still burrowing away in the British Labour Party - in the social democratic parties who still claim to be Marxists This is the text of a talk given to a Workers Solidarity Movement meeting. As such it represents the authors opinion alone and may be deliberately provocative in order to encourage discussion. Also it may be in note form. Still we hope you find it useful. Two examples will illustrate this development. The first example is the question of arms. In primitive societies all adult men (and sometimes all adult men and women) had the right to bear arms. As the class division emerged and the newly emerging rulers wanted to make it more difficult to challenge their power the community as whole lost their right to bear arms and instead this became the particular perogative of special bodies under the control of the rulers - police and army. It was Engels who said that the state is, in the final analysis, nothing other than a body of armed men. Anarchists and Marxists do agree that

• the state did not always exist

• it serves the interests of a ruling class which needs special means because it is a minority

• it represents the interests of the ruling class as a whole, it serves as a sort of executive committee for them.

• it holds a monopoly of force to defend and further the interests of the rulers

• it is not possible to place it under a genuinely democratic control. (The notion of the vote being the highest stage of decision making is a deliberately fostered illusion in a society where real power ultimately lies in the boardrooms of big business. In this regard we need only remember how the big bosses organised an investment strike in Britain in 1974 to warn against the Labour Party getting carried away with its reforming ideas, or how the Chilean economy was destabilised to prepare the way for Pinochet's CIA backed coup in 1973.)

Answer 2

Social democratic perspective sees the state as playing a role in regulating the economy and providing social safety nets to achieve a more equitable society through reforms within capitalism. In contrast, the Marxist perspective views the state as a tool of the ruling class to maintain the capitalist system and believes in the eventual overthrow of capitalism through revolution to establish a classless society.