Description
Book SynopsisLenin's booklet
The State and Revolution struck the world of Marxist theory like a lightning bolt. Written in the months running up to the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin turned the traditional socialist concept of the state on its head, arguing for the need to smash the organs of the bourgeois state to create a 'semi-state' of soviets, or workers' councils, in which ordinary people would take on the functions of the state machine in a new and radically democratic manner. This new edition includes a substantial introduction by renowned theorist Antonio Negri, who argues for the continued relevance of these ideas.
Table of ContentsIntroduction by Antonio NegriPreface to First Edition
Preface to Second Edition
1:
Class Society and the State The State: A Product of the Irreconcilability of Class Antagonisms
Special Bodies of Armed Men, Prisons, etc.
The State: An Instrument for the Exploitation
of the Oppressed Class
The 'Withering Away' of the State,
and Violent Revolution
2:
The Experience of 1848-51The Eve of Revolution
The Revolution Summed Up
The Presentation of the Question by Marx in 1852
3:
Experience of the Paris Commune of 1871. Marx's AnalysisWhat Made the Communards' Attempt Heroic?
What Is To Replace the Smashed State Machine?
Abolition of Parliamentarism
Organization of National Unity
Abolition of the Parasite State
4:
Supplementary Explanations by EngelsThe Housing Question
Controversy with the Anarchists
Letter to Bebel
Criticism of the Draft of the Erfurt Programme
The 1891 Preface to Marx's The Civil War in France
Engels on the Overcoming of Democracy
5:
The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the StatePresentation of the Question by Marx
The Transition from Capitalism to Communism
The First Phase of Communist Society
The Higher Phase of Communist Society
6:
The Vulgarization of Marxism by OpportunistsPlekhanov's Controversy with the Anarchists
Kautsky's Controversy with the Opportunists
Kautsky's Controversy with Pannekoek
Postscript
