People's democracy (Marxism–Leninism)

People's democracy was a theoretical concept within Marxism–Leninism (and a form of government in communist states) which developed after World War II, which allowed in theory for a multi-class, multi-party democracy on the pathway to socialism. Prior to the rise of Fascism, Communist Parties had called for Soviet Republics to be implemented throughout the world, such as the Chinese Soviet Republic or William Z. Foster's book Towards Soviet America. However, after the rise of fascism, and the creation of the Popular Front governments in France and Spain, the Comintern under Bulgarian Communist leader Georgi Dimitrov began to advocate for a broad multi-class united front as opposed to the pure proletarian dictatorship of the Soviets. The possibility of a trans-class democracy was first put forward during the Popular front period against Fascism.

György Lukács was one of the first to suggest the possibility of Communists working for a democratic republic in his so-called Blum Thesis of 1929.

Lukacs recounted in 1967 that:

It is hard for most people to imagine how paradoxical this sounded then. Although the Sixth Congress of the Third International did mention this as a possibility, it was generally thought to be historically impossible to take such a retrograde step, as Hungary had already been a soviet republic in 1919.

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