Bakunin's Fear: Dictatorship Over the Proletariat
Karl Marx theorized a transitional phase known as the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. This was intended as a state controlled by the working class to suppress counter-revolutionaries after a socialist revolution.
However, the anarchist thinker Mikhail Bakunin expressed significant concern about this concept. Bakunin feared that instead of the proletariat exercising power, a new ruling elite would emerge.
Bakunin worried that Marx's proposed 'dictatorship of the proletariat' could easily morph into a 'dictatorship on the proletariat'. This meant the state apparatus, even if initially claiming to represent the workers, would ultimately dominate and oppress them, creating a new form of authoritarianism rather than liberation.
This critique highlights a fundamental disagreement between Marxists and anarchists regarding the role and nature of the state, even during a revolutionary transition.
Therefore, Mikhail Bakunin is the figure associated with the fear that Marx's concept would become a dictatorship on the proletariat.
Important Questions from Political Theory
Which of the following types of policy evaluation lays emphasis on determining the success level in achieving its basic objectives?
Name the editor of the book, "Towards a New Public Administration-Minnowbrook":
Who defined leadership as "the ability of a manager to induce subordinates to work with zeal and confidence"?
Who defined Public Administration as "the art and science of management applied to the affairs of the state"?
The term "Sanskritisation" was coined by
