Classes
Engels explains, “As distinct from the old gentile [tribal or clan] order, [2] the state , first divides its subjects according to territory…This division seems “natural” to us, but it costs a prolonged struggle against the old organization according to generations or tribes.” Splitting of people into classes is instrumental in the running of the state. Classes make it easy for the state to dominate and exercise its power. Accordingly, the state perpetuates tribalism and classicism in the quest to dominate the proletariat.
Revolutions
Lenin writes, “If we take revolutions of the 20th century as examples we shall, of course, have to admit that the Portuguese and the Turkish revolutions are both bourgeois revolutions. Neither of them, however, is a “people’s” revolution, since in neither does the mass of the people, their vast majority, come out actively, independently, with their own economic and political demands to any noticeable degree.”
Revolutions can either be spearheaded by the bourgeois or the proletariat. When masses are involved in a revolution, it becomes a proletariat revolution. Comparatively, when the property owning individuals are solely involved in revolution, then the revolution is bourgeois. The proletariat revolutions advance the working class's interests whereas the bourgeois revolution champions the desires of the ruling class.
Exploitation
Lenin expounds, “The exploiting classes need political rule to maintain exploitation i.e., in the selfish interest of an insignificant minority against the vast majority of all people. The exploited classes need political rule in order to completely abolish all exploitation. i.e., in the interest of the vast majority of the people, and against the insignificant minority consisting of the modern slave-owners-the landowners and capitalists.”
Political powers put the exploiting classes to control resources and hinder the exploited classes from outsmarting them. Exploitation can be eradicated when the exploited classes are in a position to utilize political power. Capitalists are similar to slave owners because they exploit the working class.
“The Revolution Summed Up”
Marx explains, “The revolution (of 1848-51) is thoroughgoing. It is still journeying through purgatory. It does its work methodically. By December 2 1851 [the day of Louis Bonaparte’s coup d’état], it had completed half of its preparatory work. It is now completing the other half. First it perfected the parliamentary power, in order to be able to overthrow it.”
Here, the executive is emblematic of bureaucracy which is destabilized during the coup. Overthrowing the parliamentary power is contributory to smashing the oppression of the proletariats. Marx holds that the revolution is on course because it has succeeded in containing the executive power that the revolution will eventually destroy.
