Universal Suffrage, the Vanguard Party and Mobilization in Marxism

Bibliographic Data

ID6267735
AuthorsPierre Birnbaum (corresponding author)
Year1985
Volume20
Issue1
Pages53-69
Publication date1985-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGovernment and Opposition (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0017-257X • E-ISSN: 1477-7053
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1477-7053.1985.tb01068.x
OpenAlexW2024619136
LanguageEN
References cited6

THERE ARE ONLY A FEW PASSAGES IN MARX AND ENGELS dealing with the relation they established between party, class and elections. After showing that the proletariat formed a well-defined class by virtue of its place in the relations of production, Marx and Engels emphasized that the workers had been able to overcome their isolation in order to organize themselves. To cease being simply a mass, atomized by competition, they formed an association to strengthen their ‘union’ and make possible their mobilization. Profiting from the use of the means of communication, the workers became conscious of their common interests: ‘the result was the organization of the proletariat into a class and then into a political party’. It was the whole class that transformed itsef into a political party: no division took place. Rejecting the Blanquist conceptions of elitist parties, Marx and Engels added that ‘all previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interests of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the immense majority

Class (philosophy · Competition (biology · Epistemology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Proletariat · Sociology · Suffrage · Vanguard · Virtue · Working class · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Employment, Labor, and Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

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