In previous posts, we explored how the elimination of private ownership of the means of production may be the only path to dissolving many societal problems, including authoritarianism. According to Marx’s analysis, this transformation would likely require a revolution where the working class assumes power and socializes productive resources. This essay examines why revolutionary authority becomes necessary in such contexts and how it compares to historical precedents.
Class Conflict and Private Property
Marx argued that as long as private property exists, class conflict will persist. This conflict manifests as the ownership class exercising power over the working class, resulting in oppression and even armed conflicts. Most significant societal problems stem from these class antagonisms—problems that will continue as long as classes with competing interests exist.
Alternative solutions that preserve private property will ultimately prove ineffective. By “private property,” Marx specifically referred to the ownership of productive resources (factories, machines, buildings) that allows individuals to profit from others’ labor. Instead, Marx proposed that industries profiting from wage labor should be democratically controlled by the government, representing the interests of the workers.
The Necessity of Revolutionary Authority
Since people typically act according to their class interests, those who own private property—employers profiting from others’ labor through ownership of productive resources—will not voluntarily surrender their advantages for social betterment. They will persistently seek to maximize their share of wealth. This is precisely where revolutionary authority becomes necessary: the transfer of power requires force, which inevitably generates resistance.
Historical Patterns of Revolution
Examining revolutions throughout history reveals consistent patterns. The working class develops revolutionary potential through capitalism’s natural evolution, leading to two primary outcomes:
- If workers develop class consciousness equivalent to that of the capitalist class, they recognize that class conflict has existed since private property’s inception and that collective action is their only path to liberation.
- If workers lack class consciousness, they remain vulnerable to manipulation by the better-organized capitalist class. This typically results in fascism, restoration of capitalist power, and widespread violence against workers.
The Justification for Revolutionary Authority
Given that the capitalist class has accumulated wealth over centuries, they maintain significant advantages even after a proletarian revolution—especially when supported by international capitalist networks with propaganda resources, intelligence operations, and military capabilities. A proletarian revolution cannot survive without implementing authoritarian measures and restricting certain liberal rights such as unrestricted free speech.
The Historical Precedent
Socialist countries like the USSR gambled that temporary difficulties would ultimately yield greater freedom and prosperity. This approach parallels all republican governments: concentrating authority during a transitional phase to protect revolutionary gains, using force against counter-revolutionary elements, establishing new institutions, and maintaining achievements through organized power.
Historical Comparison
The liberal democratic revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries were not bloodless. The American Revolution involved not only war against Britain but also suppression of loyalists and establishment of a new political order that, while democratic for its time, excluded many from full participation. Similarly, the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror exemplifies revolutionary authority serving liberal democratic ideals.
Conclusion
From Engels’ perspective, the crucial distinction isn’t whether a revolution employs authority—all do—but rather in whose interest that authority operates. Liberal revolutions establish bourgeois authority, while socialist revolutions aim to establish proletarian authority.
The double standard in evaluating these different revolutionary periods reflects ideological biases rather than substantive differences in the revolutionary process itself. If we accept authority exercised during liberal democratic revolutions as necessary steps toward greater freedom, Engels would argue we should apply the same standard to socialist revolutions rather than dismissing them as uniquely authoritarian.