Q. Write short notes on
(1) The Dictatorship of the Prolateriat
(2)Withering away of the state
Ans. (i)The Dictatorship of the Proletariat: although, according to Marx, capitalism leads to its destruction, it will not at once crete communist society. After the proletarian rvolution has given a final blow to the decaying capitalism, the communistic society will not come into being immediately thereafter. The capitalist system will be replaced by the establishment of what Marx calls, the dictatorship of the proletariat as a necessary prelude to the withering away of the state. During this interim period, the state will have a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. This type of dictatorship is essential for accompolishing the tasks of revolution i.e., to hold down the efforts of the bourgeoisie to regain their lost power and privileges and also to prepare the way for the final victory of Socialism. Engels observes, "Since the State is only a temporary institution which is to be made use of in the revolution in order to forcibly suppress the opponents, it is perfectly absurd to talk about a free popular State: so long as the proletariat needs the state, it needs it not in the interest of freedomk, but in order to suppress its opponents; and when it becomes, possible to speak of freedom, the Sate as such ceases to exist".
Thus, the first stage in the realisation of communism will be a 'quasi-State' popularly called, the dictatorshp of the proletariat. This new State will be a class organization and it will function as the representative of the revolutionary working class. It will not be open society. It will expropriate the bourgeoisie, centralize all instruments of production, and increase the total production as rapidly as possible. In brief, he proletarian state will adopt revolutionary measures, resulting in the complete destruction of capitalism. It is thus a means to an end, and is transitory in character. Once the bourgeoisie hs been pulledl down and all the remanants of capitalism have been removed, the proletarian state will also become superfluous and thereafter wither away. In place of the bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonism, there shall come into being an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all. "In the communistic society people will become gradually accustomed to the observance of the elementary rulels of social life without compulsion, without subordination, without the special apparatus for compulsion which is called the State. When Socialism blossoms into communism, mankind will make accent from the kingdom of necessity to he kindom of freedom.
However this has not yet happened in any society and there is little chance for such a development in future. The disintegration of the former 'Socialist U.S.S.R.' and the the fall of socialist regimes of Eastern European countries have ended the hope of an emergence of any classless and stateless society in any part of the globe.
(2) Withering away of the State:
In the beginning of human history, there was, according to Marx, no state. The state was born when the prevailing mode of production gave birth to economic classes. The state started as an instrument in the hands of the dominant or the exploiting class to hold wown the exploited class. The laws of the state simply seek to protect the interests of the exploiting class against onslaughts of the exploited class. The capitalist state of today is a powerful weapon in the hends of the capitalist class to hold down the proletariat and to preserve the present sysem of production which is based on the exploitation of the workers. When, after overthrowing the capitalist class, the proletariat dictatorship is established the poer of the state will be used by the proletariat to expropriate the capitalists. By the by the dictatorship of the proletariat will stop exploitation of man by man and abolish all class distinctions. With the abolition of class dictinctions the state itself will cease to exist. Since the state is an instrument of exploitation created and maintained by the rich (capitalists) for exploiting the poor (worker), it will suffer a blow after blow with every blow against the class of the capitalists by the proletariate during the era of Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Gradually the state, the executive apparatus of the rich, will wither away. And finally the emergence of the classless society would also be and emergence of a stateless society as the state will completely wither away from the Socialist Revolution.
Thus, after the proletarian revolution, the state will gradually wither away. When perfectly classless society gets established, the state will disappear. It is not abolished or disbanded. It just fades away. Us place will be taken by an administrative apparatus which will control and manage the instruments of production. Engels said that at this stage "the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things." The new society will banish the whole state machine to its proper place, the museum of antiquities, side by side with the spinning wheel and the bronze axe.
However this did not happen during the Dictatorship of the Proletariate, which in practice meant Dictatorship of the party of workers. The communist party, and the socialise system which remained at work in the former USSR and other socialist countries of Europe during 1917-90.
