Forms of Political Systems - Essay Example

Introduction to political science  Karl Marx had played an important role in shaping the various political systems of the world. His theories and philosophies had a significant effect in structuring many of the political systems of the world. In fact his philosophies were the base on which most of the superstructures of economy and polity stood. According to Marx the legal and political institutions of the society are super structural in nature and their fundamental character is defined by the existing economic structure. Marx is of the opinion that the relations of productions determine the direction of the development of productive forces. Therefore it is the relation of production that helps in shaping the different political systems that exist in the world. (Bottomore, 1991). Democracy means an effective consent of the governed. Liberalism means respect for the individual being. Again democracy means “location of a state’s power, that is, in the hands of the people, whereas ‘liberal’ refers to the limitation of the state’s power”. A “liberal democracy is a political system in which the people make the basic political decisions, but in which there are limitations on what decisions they can make”. (Watson, 1999, p.3). It can thus be said that liberalism in its modern form is basically a system in which an individual can use the state power according to the wish of the majority. It can also be said that liberalism tends to take the form of tyranny which involves the rule of one for his or her personal interest. And here lies the paradox of liberal democracy. It becomes very difficult to fit Marx among the nineteenth century democrats. It has also been found that democracy gained comparatively little from Marxism; instead it suffered a great deal from Marx and his followers. Democracy may mean a lot of things. It may mean belief in a particular form of government, that is a government formed by the majority and a government which constitutes representative institutions. It may also mean a certain idea about the particular forms of the government. But neither of these definitions allows Marxism to penetrate through Democracy. As belief in government by consent is not in line with the view of historical progress which states that the progress was a product of the class war which had taken place influenced by Marxism. Therefore it is natural that Marxist theories have been used as an argument to negate the theories of liberal democracy. But it cannot be said that Marx was completely anti-democratic. Yet democracy can acquire yet a more fundamental meaning. Democracy can mean a scale of moral values. Taking the basis of values a lot of importance is given to humanitarian individualism. Humanitarian individualism considers the individual man as the most important entity. Egalitarian treatment to the individual is the only way to justify a social system. The aspect of humanitarian individualism takes into account all the political and social actions that are undertaken and how such actions bring in good or evil to the individuals. It can be thus said that between this view of life and the tenets of democracy there is a natural connection. Marx had gone beyond the limits of his theories. He was critical about the absolute virtues of democracy but at the same time he showed dependence on the ethical principles of democracy.(Postan, 1971). Thus it can be said that liberal democracy was influenced by Marxism in the sense that Marx had paid a lot of importance on the individuals of the society. He considered the individuals as separate entities and according to him the goal of every social system should be to impart good to the individuals and should respect the individuals and the essence of liberal democracy we have seen is to impart respect to the individual beings and to create a system whereby the individuals are able to use the power of the state.  “Socialism may be defined as movements for social ownership and control of the economy”. (Busky, 2000, p.2). Socialism can be defined saying that it is a political and economic system in all the means of production, distribution and exchange are collectively owned by the entire community usually through a media and the medium is always the state. According to Marx socialism was a product which grew out of the development of the laws of capitalism. Marx had not felt the need to either define or describe socialism in detail. In the opinion of Marx socialism was the first step towards the negation of the capitalistic nature of the state. He felt that socialism was a process through which communism will be developed in a society and this would happen through a lot of revolutionary process through which the proletariats would be able to remake the society around them and in the process would also remake themselves. (Bottomore, 19991). According to Marx the “state was a little more than an extension of the elite, controlled primarily by its own members in order to promote and protect Capitalism and the ruling class interests”. (Johnson, 2000. P. 306). Marx had defined state socialism as a mode of production which would replace the industrial capitalism. And this change would happen through a revolution by the working class. The change would also take place more through evolutionary changes in the society. Under the means of capitalist means of production the means of production are owned by a certain class of people called the capitalists who employ workers to produce wealth for them and the capitalists try to satisfy the workers by providing them wages. And capitalism is practiced with the help from state because the state depends on capitalism for getting its resources. Under the system of state socialism the means of production are collectively owned by the workers. Therefore we can say that the ultimate goal of state socialism is to bring an end to class struggle and hence call an end of exploitation of the working class. It also means an end to the oppression and alienation which the workers under capitalism face. The system of state capitalism does away with the system of individual greed and the system of concentration of wealth in few hands. Rather it paves a way for the establishment of a system which will bring about collective good of the people. It can also be said that state socialism brings an end to the class system. It limits the power of the bourgeoisie class and installs power in the hands of the proletariats. It creates an egalitarian society. (Johnson, 2000). Thus taking cue from this we can say that state socialism was greatly influenced by the theories of class struggle and dialectical materialism of Marx which says that one form of society gets replaced with another form by undergoing a number of revolutions. Just as state socialism gets established after a revolution which takes place within capitalism. Moreover Marx himself deeply believed in the equal treatment of the working class. The basis of all his theories was to uplift the conditions of the working class and as we can see that state socialism gives the ownership of the means of production at the hands of the working class it is deeply rooted to ideologies of Marx.  The Communist form of government encompasses the collective ownership of property and the presence of an organized labor force the aim of which is to render common good in the society. The Communist ideology is basically based on the ideas of Karl Marx and Lenin. The postulates of the communist ideology are equality, abolition of private property and the establishment of justice. Communism is established through a way of revolution of the proletariats who overthrows the capitalist system and establishes a dictatorship of the proletariat. The Marxist communist society is essentially a classless supreme society which brings in an inevitable breakdown of the capitalist regime. Marx had said that the capitalist class or the bourgeoisie class carried on massive exploitation of the working class. The capitalists tried to accumulate wealth through the exploitation of the working class. In capitalism the worth of an individual was demeaned and he was treated merely as a means of production. This brought about an alienation among the workers who started feeling separated from their own creations because once the creation was over the working class had no right on it. They had to be satisfied with the meager wages which they got in turn. Communism was an apt answer to all the exploitations present in the society. Marx was of the opinion, “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need”. (Stacy, 2002, p.220). Thus we can say that Marx was of the opinion that the distribution of the resources in the society should be in a manner that those who are intellectually superior receive higher positions in the society and those who are in absolute need are served the maximum with the resources present in the society. This will bring about an egalitarian and just social structure and there will not be any exploitation in the society. Marx had said that an order would be created in the society on the basis of intellect and not one basis of capital count. Communism had influenced a number of governments in the world. The communist countries which are still existing in the world are China, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam. All these countries strictly follow the tenets of communism which was largely the philosophy put forward by Marx. Thus we can say that the Communism form of government remains largely influenced by Marxism because at the centre of the philosophy of Marx was the emergence of the proletariat as an important social class through a series of revolutions. Marxism wanted to bring in a society in which the proletariat will have enough power to overthrow the capitalists thereby giving birth to a classless society the essence of Marxism.  Therefore we can say that all the three forms of political systems which we have discussed in the paper that is liberal democracy, state socialism and communism all derives its origin from the philosophies of Marxism. One way or the other we find that the political systems are closely related to Marxism. Either directly or indirectly Marxism has formed the basic philosophy of all the political systems of the world. May be after bringing about some amount of alterations in the philosophies of Marxism a new form of government is formed yet the source remains to be the philosophies of Marxism. Thus we can conclude saying that Karl Marx occupies a very important system in the political systems of the world.    References 1. Bottomore T, 1991, “A Dictionary of Marxist thought”, Wiley-Blackwell, USA. 2. Busky D, 2000, “Democratic socialism: a global survey”, Greenwood Publishing Group, Santa Barbara. 3. Johnson A, 2000, “The Blackwell dictionary of sociology: a users guide to sociological language”, Wiley-Blackwell, USA. 4. Postan M, 1971, “Fact and relevance: essays on historical method”, Cambridge University Press, UK. 5. Stacy L, 2002, “Mexico and the United States”, Marshall Cavendish, Singapore. 6. Watson B, 1999, “Civil rights and the paradox of liberal democracy”, Lexington Books, Lanham.   Read More