Dictatorship of Proletariat

In Marxist sociopolitical thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a state in which the proletariat, or the working class, has control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the 19th century. In Marxist theory, the dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate system between capitalism and communism, when the government is in the process of changing the ownership of the means of production from private to collective ownership. It is termed dictatorship because it retains the 'state apparatus' as such, with its implements of force and oppression.

Dictatorship of the proletariat is different from the popular notion of 'dictatorship' which is despised as the selfish, immoral, irresponsible and unconstitutional political rule of one man. On the other hand, it implies a stage where there is complete 'socialization of the major means of production', in other words planning of material production so as to serve social needs, provide for an effective right to work, education, health and housing for the masses, and fuller development of science and technology so as to multiply material production to achieve greater social satisfaction. However, social division into classes still exists, but the proletariat become the dominant class; oppression is still used to suppress the bourgeois counter-revolution.

Both Marx and Engels argued that the short-lived Paris Commune, which ran the French capital for over two months before being repressed, was an example of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

According to Marxist theory, the existence of any government implies the dictatorship of one social class over another. The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is thus used as an antonym of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Marxism–Leninism follows the ideas of Marxism and Leninism according to Lenin's successor Joseph Stalin. It seeks to establish a vanguard party, to lead proletarian uprising, assume state power on behalf of the proletariat, and create a single party socialist state. The socialist state, representing a dictatorship of the proletariat is governed through the process of democratic centralism, which Vladimir Lenin described as "diversity in discussion, unity in action." It remains the official ideology of the ruling parties of China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam, and was the official ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the other ruling parties making up the Eastern Bloc.

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