The Marxist view of politics (short note)

The Marxist view of politics

Politics rooted in economics. For Marxism politics cannot be read apart from the economy. The base, made up of the forces and relations of production, shapes a superstructure that includes the polity, religion, morals and values; people's social existence fixes their consciousness, not the other way round. Every society except primitive communism has been marked by conflict between those who own the means of production and those who work them, and NCERT records the key point: private ownership of important resources makes the owning class wealthy and also gives it social and political power.

Politics as class rule. The state is a coercive class instrument, set up by the owners to put down dissent, so a minority has always ruled a majority through it. Marxists therefore say that the liberal promise of civic rights and equality overlooks unequal class power. NCERT notes that much inequality can persist where all citizens hold equal rights, and Marxists and socialists conclude that equal opportunity is not enough: essential resources need public control.

Ideas and consent. Marx held that the ruling class produces an ideology that legitimates its exploitation. In Marxist language, consent moulded in this way ends in false consciousness. Later Marxists such as Gramsci accepted that the superstructure has an important role.

Goal. Politics in this sense aims to end class society. A revolution of the workers leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, and then to a communist society with no classes, no state and no private ownership of the means of production.

Criticisms. Its prediction about the state has failed in practice: where its followers took power, the state became all-powerful instead of fading away. Lohia, for one, held that caste, gender and other inequalities have roots of their own and must be fought separately. Its map of society, with two classes only, is too simple and leaves out a growing middle class. And causation does not run one way only: the economy is itself shaped by politics, culture and religion, which is why later Marxists gave the superstructure more weight. Still, IGNOU holds that it remains useful as a method of social analysis and as a voice of the oppressed, and NCERT accepts that its views, though debatable, raise issues that need an answer.