Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels
Both of
them are considered to be the founders of the greatest social and political
movement which began in 19th century and flourished in 20th century as a
political philosophy in Eastern Europe which is the erstwhile Soviet Union and
influenced all the decolonized colonies of the world. Tenets of their ideology
are practised in China’s Political Philosophy.
Marx’s view
of state and law was co-terminus with the understanding of society and social
process. Marx’s originality of thought lies in the fact that he synthesized
almost entire philosophical thought from Aristotle to Hegel.
The
sociological understanding of the society led Marx to pronounce that the
desired system should be a Communist Society based on rational planning, co-operative
production and equality of distribution and most importantly, liberated from
all forms of political and bureaucratic hierarchy.
Marx
condemned and rejected the state and money as Bourgeois concept. He believed
that the proletariat has a historical mission of emancipating the society as a
whole. For him, law seemed to be nothing more than a function of economy
without any independent existence.
Following
is his classification of society into various classes:
1. The
capitalists
2. The Wage
Labourers
3. The land
owners
He said
that the conflict between various classes of the society will eventually have
to be resolved. The resolution of the conflict will take place in the shape of
a Proletarian revolution. Once this revolution takes place, it will seize the
power of the state and transform the means of production in the first instance
into State property. The earlier state of exploitation and representative of
class antagonism will be replaced by a state truly representative of society as
a whole which means taking possession of means of production in the name of
society. This would be at the same the last independent act of the State.
The
interference of the State in social relations becomes superfluous in one’s
sphere after a point of time and then ceases off itself. The government of
persons is to be replaced by a different administration that would direct the
process of production. However, the Proletarian revolution in order to reach
the stage of Communism shall have to pass through various stages.
1.
Establishment of a Proletarian Dictatorship which is essential to convert the
capitalist modes of production into the Proletariat mode of production.
2. Stage of
Nationalization of the property and all the capital modes of production.
3. Stage of
Socialism as the property is in common ownership, the society at large shall be
responsible for the production and distribution of goods.
The
production of goods in common ownership, the distribution of commodities will
have to follow “from each according to his ability to each according to his
needs”.
However,
inequalities will remain and hence, the need to distribute the goods will become
inevitable. The ultimate stage is that of Communism and this state he imagined
in his work called “Critique of the Gotha Program”.
He said
that the Communist society will have to develop and emerge from capitalist
society and in respects, it is bound to carry with it some marks of capitalist
society.
“Accordingly
the individual producer will receive back what he gives to society, after
deductions for government, education, and other social charges. He will give
society his individual quota of labour. For example: the social working day
consists in the sum total of individual working days; the individual labour
time of the individual producer is the part of the social working day which he
contributes; his share thereof. He will receive from society a certificate that
he has performed so much work (after deducting his work for social funds), and
with this certificate he will draw from the social provision of articles of
consumption as much as a similar quantity of labour costs. The same quantity of
labour as he will give to society in one form he will receive back in
another.... The right of producers will be proportionate to the work they will
perform: the equality will consist in the application of the same measure:
labour." Higher Communist State- Concept of power and labour gets
vanished. After production force increases, then there will be all round
development of individual. This we get from “Communist Manifesto”. In higher
form of communist state after enslaving subordination of the individual to the
division of labour and anti-thesis between mental and physical labour has
vanished after labour has become not only a means of life but life’s prime
want, after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round
development of individual. And all the springs of the co-operative wealth flows
more abundantly”.
He further
believed that the concept of state is a super structure in a capitalist state
to organize and uphold class oppression. The bureaucracy and the executive in a
state are for the managing common class and struggle waged by the society
against each other. Law is not based on will but once the bourgeois state is
overthrown by a proletariat, the proletariat state would come into existence.
This state would be representative of social will of all the classes. The nexus
between safeguarding the private property by a capitalist state will be
replaced by a proletariat state which has nationalized all the private
property. However, it is interesting to note that the state and statecraft remains
an important and integral in the proletarian society.
Evgeny
Pashukanis
He tried to
remove the gloss on law and Marxism as experimented by the Marxist state. He
believed that proletariat law practised in erstwhile Soviet Union needed
alternative general concepts to reinforce Marxist theory of law. He believed
that power is collective will as the ‘rule of law’ realized in the bourgeois
society is to the extent that the society is represented by a market.
Karl Renner
He authored
“The institutions of private law and their social functions”. This work of his
utilized the Marxist theory of sociology to develop a separate theory of law.
He believed that the Socialists and Marxists have failed to understand that new
society as such societies have pre-formed in the womb of the old and that is
equally true for law as well. According to him, the process of change from one
given order to another is automatic.
Renner
confessed that the concept of property in terms of Marx has not remained the
same today. The property whether in socialism and capitalism has not remained
an instrument of exploitation rather the natural forces of change have put
property into various restrictions be it tenants, employees or consumers.
However, he also said that the power of property remains whatsoever the
political character of the state may be.
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