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MARX'S THEORY OF STATE.
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Role of private property, alienation, liberty, labor, class conflict.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Role of private property, alienation, liberty, labor, class conflict.

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Marx's Theory of State Marx wrote that the "state apparatus is simultaneously a 'parasitic body' on civil society and an autonomous source of political action." According to Marx, the state is a legal and political superstructure consisting of the "official, active and conscious expression of the economic structure of society." This superstructure is the bourgeoisie which expropriates the surplus labor of others. The material interest of the ruling class, or the bourgeoisie, is systematically antagonistic to the material interest of the producer class (the proletarian class) from whom this surplus labor is expropriated. Marx believes that this antagonism is what supports the political superstructure. Where there is no division of labor

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[6]McMurtry, 76. 4. London: C.A. T.B. . Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. [11]K. [9]McMurtry, 77, note 9. A. 8. [8]Karl Marx: Early Writings, trans. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1981.Easton, L.D., and K.H. Guddat, eds., Writings of the Young Marx onPhilosophy and Society (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 35 . Marx, and F. Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.Carter, Alan. Which Socialism? [1 ]C. . If thebourgeoisie own the newspapers and television stations, this means that themajority is alienated from access to the means of freedom of speech andpress, and the freedoms are merely illusory. [16]Stanley Moore, Marx on the Choice between Socialism and Communism(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 198 ), 3. Marx: An Introduction. 3. What must be transformed is free labor itself. Marx believes that this antagonism is what supports the politicalsuperstructure. After the revolution, "there will be no longer anygovernment of state power, distinct from society itself."[29] Marx's hopeis that the state above society will disappear and become an integral partwithin society. [21]Ibid. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. New York: Franklin Watts, 1985.Held, David, et al., ed. As was seen earlier, marx also accused the bourgeoisie of reducing professional and family relationships to monetary ties.[25]In his long term vision for a communist society, Marx was anti-state.Ultimately, he believes, human beings would manage their own socialaffairs. In order to rid society of the repression of thebourgeoisie, the economic foundation of the state must be abolished.Therefore, Marx's answer to bringing the working class political power isfounded on the abolition of private property.[4] There is a connection between private property and division of laborthat he sees as the root of political repression: The measures . Like ownership of private property, thestate must stand over the competing individuals who are opposed to eachother.[2 ] In the labor force, Marx saw two problems with freedom of labor as itexists in the modern state. Edwin. Watts, 1963.Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. According to Marx, private property is already done away with fornine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due toits non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. [22]Ibid, 17 . Marx's Theory of State Marx wrote that the "state apparatus is simultaneously a 'parasiticbody' on civil society and an autonomous source of political action."[1]According to Marx, the state is a legal and political superstructureconsisting of the "official, active and conscious expression of theeconomic structure of society."[2] This superstructure is the bourgeoisiewhich expropriates the surplus labor of others. There would be no need for a state once the social relations thatgive rise to class struggles had been altered and a classless societydeveloped. [19]Ed Sparer, "Fundamental Human Rights, Legal Entitlement, and theSocial Struggle: A Friendly Critique of the Critical Legal StudiesMovement," Stanford Law Review, 36, 1984, 53 . [24]Norberto Bobbio, Which Socialism? It is through ownership andcontrol of property by which the bourgeoisie keeps the labor forces in astate of repression. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983.----------------------- [1]David Held, et al., ed., States and Societies (New York: New YorkUniversity Press, 1983), 27. Edwin Baker, "Property and Its Relation to ConstitutionallyProtected Liberty," University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 134, 1986, 747. The material interest ofthe ruling class, or the bourgeoisie, is systematically antagonistic to thematerial interest of the producer class (the proletarian class) from whomthis surplus labor is expropriated. [28]Timothy McCarthy, Marx and the Proletariat: A Study in SocietyTheory (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985), 13. The modern state splits the human beinginto political life, which is public and communal in spirit, and civillife, where the human being is an individual pursuing private purposesincluding private gain.[27] In capitalist societies, wage-labor isincompatible with man's self-realization and therefore is slavery. [2]L.D. Equal obligation of all to work. 1 . Its abolition isthe transformation of labor as estranged activity and of the modern statewhich rests upon it:[21] Free choice, or liberty as a bourgeois right, is an illusion. Bottomore (London: Watts,1963), 132-33. [27]Ibid. [25]Barbara Silberdick Feinberg, Marx and Marxism (New York: FranklinWatts, 1985), 81. Melbourne: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.Sparer, Ed. Engels, "The Communist Manifesto," in The MarxistReader (New York: Avenel Books, 1982), 4 . [26]Sparer, 528. [15]Ibid., 35. Centralization of credit in the hands of the States, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. [29]Alan Carter, Marx: A Radical Critique (Boulder, CO: WestviewPress, 1981), 222.----------------------- 3 they do not free him from property, but procure for him freedom of property; . "Property and Its Relation to Constitutionally Protected Liberty." University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 134, 1986, 741-816.Bobbio, Norberto. New York: New York University Press, 1983.Karl Marx: Early Writings. 9. [2 ]Teeple, 169. A capitalistic society is therefore a society of alienation.[14]In a communist society, the means of production are the collective propertyof the workers and each worker's capacity to labor becomes publicproperty.[15] Somewhere between the capitalist society and the communistsociety lies the socialist society. Combination of education with industrial production.[12]Following the plan's implementation, class distinctions would disappear,and all means of production would be in the hands of the whole nation. "The Communist Manifesto." In The Marxist Reader. New York: Doubleday, 1967.Feinberg, Barbara Silberdick. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 198 .Oakley, Allen. [23]Karl Marx: Early Writings, 24-5. He felt that free trade--the right to exchange goods without government interference in the form of taxes, or customs duties, or other obstacles such as quotas--was a mere disguise for the capitalists' need to constantly expand their markets. . ForMarx, the right of man to liberty, interpreted in negative terms as theright to do and perform everything which does not harm others, 'is notbased on the association of man with man but rather on the separation ofman from man. The right of the circumscribed individual, withdrawn intohimself.[23] Marx believed that the traditional liberal rights, together with thesocial system they support, arose from the material base of society. So interpreted, rights lead each man to see in other men not therealization but the limitations of his own freedom.[24] Marx believed that bourgeois notions of freedom meant simply thefreedom to exploit others: For example, what did free speech mean if the owners of newspapers were the reigning bourgeoisie? BibliographyBaker, C. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.McMurtry, John. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of he distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. [13]Ibid. Abolition of all right of inheritance. The Making of Marx's Critical Theory: A Bibliographical Analysis. Becausebourgeois society is based upon self-interest, it violates man's trulysocial nature as a communal being.[28] Just as Marx proposed to abolish private property in order to rid themajority of the oppressive state power, Marx encourages the abolition oflabor in its form as it is known in the capitalist society--estrangedactivity and wage labor. [4]Allen Oakley, The Making of Marx's Critical Theory: ABibliographical Analysis (Melbourne: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), 17. Marx and the Proletariat: A Study in Society Theory. True freedom-- the critical, conscious unity of the individual and his collectivity-- can only come with the transcendence of competition and of private property on which it is based.[22]Liberty as a right of man is not founded upon the relations between man andman, but rather upon the separation of man from man. What benefits did workers receive if free trade meant freedom from government inspection and regulation of conditions of employment to enrich the bourgeoisie? The means of production arecollectively owned, but each producer is paid a wage--a certificate of workperformed, exchangeable for consumers' goods.[16] Marx's Theory of State Applied to the Concept of Liberty Marx asserts that "the practical application of liberty is the rightof private property."[17] In other words, private property gives rise toand supports the rights of man, which Marx explained were equality,liberty, security, and property. [3]John McMurtry, The Structure of Marx's World-View (Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press, 1978), 1 2. As Marx explained: The rights of man do not free man from religion, but give him freedom of religion; . The freedom to compete is to be a salve to competition and to confront the freedom of others in exercising your own. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. Consequently, the state will also be destroyed.In conclusion, Marx sees the state as being a negative force on man'sfreedom. When theantagonistic relations for production no longer exist, there would be noreason to require the political superstructure of the state.[3] Marx's Theory of State Applied to the Concept of Property Marx recognized that the economic foundation for this parasiticsuperstructure was based on private property. Bottomore, trans. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. [5]W.A. States and Societies. Suchting, Marx: An Introduction (New York: New YorkUniversity Press, 1983), 57. they do not free him from the filth of gain, but rather give him freedom of gainful occupation.[18] However, as soon as these rights of man come into conflict with thosewho have gained power, i.e., the state, the rights are limited orterminated--including the rights to freedom of speech and press.[19] Thiscorresponds to Marx's theory of private property and alienation. The freedom to choose is conditioned and limited by wealth and class position. The fact that individuals in a capitalist society have theliberty to change employers does not mean that the majority has freedom oflabor. include abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes, a heavy progressive income tax, abolition of the right of inheritance, centralization of credit, means of communication and transport in the hands of the State, gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by the combination of agriculture and manufacturing industries and the more equable distribution of the population over the country and free education for all children in public schools.[5]The reason that abolition of property is essential to Marx's theory ofstate is that property necessarily entails "ownership."[6] Marx sees thelabor force, the majority, as being alienated from the forces ofproduction. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. [18]Gary Teeple, Marx's Critique of Politics 1842-1847 (Toronto:University of Toronto Press, 1983), 169. The rule of the bourgeois is based on freedomof labor. . A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. When a small few own the forces of production, this implies analienation of the majority from the same productive forces.[7] Alienation also can be overcome by emancipating society from privateproperty: From the relation of alienated labor to private property it also follows that the emancipation of society from private property, from servitude, takes the political form of the emancipation of the work; not in the sense that only the latter's emancipation is involved, but because this emancipation includes the emancipation of humanity as a whole. Marx: A Radical Critique. Marx's Critique of Politics 1842-1847. New York: New York University Press, 1983.Teeple, Gary. 6. (Minneapolis: University ofMinnesota Press, 1986), 4. It is the right of this separation.' This defense offreedom has its 'practical application' in the right to private property.The right to enjoy and dispose of one's resources as one wills, withoutregard for other men and independently of society: the right of self-interest. Where there is no division of labor and no private powerto exploit society's forces of production, then there would be no legal andpolitical superstructure required to preside over such conflicts. For all human servitude is involved in the relation of the work to production, and all the types of servitude are only modifications or consequences of this relation.[8]"Because all private ownership is the power to exclude others from what isprivately owned, all private ownership entails alienation, whether or notit involves the power to subjugate others' labor."[9] Modern Marxistcommentators also acknowledge that recognized property rights not onlyreflect the outcome of past unjust exploitation, but also contribute to itscontinuing occurrence."[1 ] Private property is not only the product, thenecessary result of alienated labor, but the means of destroying thealienation. [17]Karl Marx: Early Writings, 24-25. Marx on the Choice Between Socialism and Communism. [14]Oakley, 25. [12]Ibid., 46. In the meantime, states would continue to represent theinterests of one class against others.[26] For Marx, however, the modern state not only represented theinterests of the ruling class, it also divided the life of the human beinginto that of private person and public person--a division that allowscertain forms of political emancipation but frustrates the fullemancipation of the human being. Free education for all children in public schools. What protection did hapless people have against a glut of unwanted foreign goods? "Fundamental Human Rights, Legal Entitlement, and the Social Struggle: A Friendly Critique of the Critical Legal Studies Movement." Stanford Law Review, 36, 1984, 5 9-574.Suchting, W. . Guddat, eds. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.Moore, Stanley. . 2. One such right is the freedomof labor, a right to compete for labor, a freedom which is limited by thefreedom of other competitors. Thepublic power will lose its political character because there will be noorganized power of one class oppressing another.[13] In contrast to Marx's theory, the essence of capitalism is privateproperty, in which the large majority of people exist by laboring forcapital. T.B. Marx and Marxism. [7]Ibid. New York: Avenel Books, 1982.McCarthy, Timothy. Marx's view is that the state rests on free labor, which is wave-slavery. The Structure of Marx's World-View. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. 5. The state's oppression is manifested in private property andillusory liberty. Easton, and K.H. It is the right ofsuch separation. 7. From the time thatlabor can no longer be converted into capital, money, or rent, thenindividuals will no longer have the power to subjugate the labor of othersby means of such appropriation.[11] Marx, in The Communist Manifesto, outlines a ten-point plan forabolishing private property as follows: 1.

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