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Revision 569045627 of "Marxism" on enwiki{{about||the ideology of [[Communist state|states governed by Communist parties]]|Marxism–Leninism}}
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{{Marxism}}
'''Marxism''' is a method of socio-economic inquiry based upon a [[Historical materialism|materialist interpretation of historical development]], a [[dialectic]]al view of social change, and an analysis of class-relations and conflict within society. Marxist methodology informs an [[economic]] and sociopolitical [[worldview]] based on their application to the analysis and critique of the development of [[capitalism]] and the role of class struggle in systemic economic change. In the mid-to-late 19th century, the [[Philosophy|intellectual tenets]] of Marxism were inspired by two [[German philosophy|German philosophers]]: [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]. Marxist analyses and methodologies have influenced multiple political ideologies and social movements throughout history. Marxism encompasses an [[Marxian economics|economic theory]], a [[Marxist sociology|sociological theory]], a [[Marxist philosophy|philosophical method]], and a [[Revolutionary socialism|revolutionary]] view of social change.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551385/social-science/38930/Marxist-influences social science : Marxist influences – Britannica Online Encyclopedia]</ref> There is no one definitive Marxist theory; Marxist analysis has been applied to a variety of different subjects and has been misconceived and modified during the course of its development, resulting in multiple and sometimes contradictory theories that fall under the rubric of Marxism or Marxian analysis.<ref>{{cite book |last= Wolff and Resnick|first= Richard and Stephen |title= Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|year= 1987|month= August|isbn= 0801834805|page = 130|quote= Marxian theory (singular) gave way to Marxian theories (plural).}}</ref>
Marxism is based on a materialist understanding of societal development, taking as its starting point the necessary economic activities required by human society to provide for its material needs. The form of economic organization, or [[mode of production]], is understood to be the basis from which the majority of other social phenomena – including [[Social relations of production|social relations]], political and legal systems, morality and ideology – arise (or at the least by which they are directly influenced). These social relations form the [[Base and superstructure|superstructure]], for which the economic system forms the base. As the [[productive forces|forces of production]] (most notably technology) improve, existing forms of social organization become inefficient and stifle further progress. These inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in the form of [[class struggle]].<ref name="ComparingEconomic">''Comparing Economic Systems in the Twenty-First Century'', 2003, by Gregory and Stuart. P.62, ''Marx's Theory of Change''. ISBN 0-618-26181-8.</ref>
According to Marxist analysis, class conflict within capitalism arises due to intensifying contradictions between highly-productive mechanized and [[Socialization (economics)|socialized production]] performed by the [[proletariat]], and private ownership and private appropriation of the [[surplus product]] in the form of [[surplus value]] (profit) by a small minority of private owners called the [[bourgeoisie]]. As the contradiction becomes apparent to the proletariat, social unrest between the two antagonistic classes intensifies, culminating in a [[social revolution]]. The eventual long-term outcome of this revolution would be the establishment of [[socialism]] - a socioeconomic system based on cooperative ownership of the means of production, [[To each according to his contribution|distribution based on one's contribution]], and [[Production for use|production organized directly for use]]. Karl Marx hypothesized that, as the productive forces and technology continued to advance, socialism would eventually give way to a [[communist]] stage of social development. Communism would be a classless, stateless, humane society based on [[common ownership]] and the principle of "[[From each according to his ability, to each according to his need]]s".
Marxism has developed into different branches and schools of thought. Different schools place a greater emphasis on certain aspects of [[Classical Marxism]] while de-emphasizing or rejecting other aspects of Marxism, sometimes combining Marxist analysis with non-Marxian concepts. Some variants of Marxism primarily focus on one aspect of Marxism as the determining force in social development – such as the mode of production, class, power-relationships or property ownership – while arguing other aspects are less important or current research makes them irrelevant. Despite sharing similar premises, different schools of Marxism might reach contradictory conclusions from each other.<ref>{{cite book |last= O'Hara|first= Phillip |title= Encyclopedia of Political Economy, Volume 2 |publisher= [[Routledge]]|year= 2003|month= September|isbn= 0-415-24187-1|page = 107|quote=Marxist political economists differ over their definitions of capitalism, socialism and communism. Because these differences are so basic, the arguments among differently persuaded Marxist political economists have sometimes been as intense as their oppositions to political economies that celebrate capitalism.}}</ref> For example, different Marxian economists have contradictory explanations of economic [[Crisis theory|crisis]] and different predictions for the outcome of such crises. Furthermore, different variants of Marxism apply Marxist analysis to study different aspects of society (e.g.: [[Cultural Marxism|mass culture]], [[Crisis theory|economic crises]], or [[Marxist feminism|Feminism]]).<ref>{{cite book |last= Wolff and Resnick|first= Richard and Stephen |title= Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|year= 1987|month= August|isbn= 0801834805|page = 130|quote= The German Marxists extended the theory to groups and issues Marx had barely touched. Marxian analyses of the legal system, of the social role of women, of foreign trade, of international rivalries among capitalist nations, and the role of parliamentary democracy in the transition to socialism drew animated debates...Marxian theory (singular) gave way to Marxian theories (plural).}}</ref>
These theoretical differences have led various socialist and communist parties and political movements to embrace different political strategies for attaining socialism, advocate different programs and policies. One example of this is the division between [[revolutionary socialist]]s and [[reformists]] that emerged in the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|German Social Democratic Party]] by the [Revisionist] during the early 20th century.
Marxist understandings of history and of society have been adopted by academics in the disciplines of [[archaeology]] and [[anthropology]],<ref>Bridget O'Laughlin (1975) ''Marxist Approaches in Anthropology'' Annual Review of Anthropology Vol. 4: pp. 341–70 (October 1975) {{doi|10.1146/annurev.an.04.100175.002013}}.<br />William Roseberry (1997) ''Marx and Anthropology'' Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 26: pp. 25–46 (October 1997) {{doi|10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.25}}</ref>
[[media studies]],<ref>S. L. Becker (1984) "Marxist Approaches to Media Studies: The British Experience", Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1(1): pp. 66–80.</ref> [[political science]], [[theater]], [[history]], [[sociological theory]], [[art history]] and [[art theory]], [[cultural studies]], [[education]], [[Marxian economics|economics]], [[Marxist geography|geography]], [[literary criticism]], [[aesthetics]], [[critical psychology]], and [[philosophy]].<ref>See [[Manuel Alvarado]], Robin Gutch, and Tana Wollen (1987) ''Learning the Media: Introduction to Media Teaching'', Palgrave Macmillan.</ref>
==Overview==
[[File:Karl Marx 001.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Karl Marx]]]]The Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of material conditions, taking at its starting point the necessary economic activities required by human society to provide for its material needs. The form of economic organization, or [[mode of production]], is understood to be the basis from which the majority of other social phenomena – including social relations, political and legal systems, morality and ideology – arise (or at the least by which they are directly influenced). These social relations base the economic system and the economic system forms the [[Base and superstructure|superstructure]]. As the [[productive forces|forces of production]], most notably [[technology]], improve, existing forms of social organization become inefficient and stifle further progress. As Karl Marx observed: "At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or_ this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms_ with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution''."<ref>A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Introduction 1859</ref>
These inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in society in the form of [[class struggle]]. Under the [[capitalist mode of production]], this struggle materializes between the minority (the [[bourgeoisie]]) who own the [[means of production]], and the vast majority of the population (the [[proletariat]]) who produce goods and services. Taking the idea that [[social change]] occurs because of the struggle between different [[social class|classes]] within society who are under contradiction against each other, leads the Marxist analysis to the conclusion that [[capitalism]] exploits and oppresses the [[proletariat]], which leads to a [[proletarian revolution]].
Capitalism (according to Marxist theory) can no longer sustain the living standards of the population due to its need to compensate for [[Tendency of the rate of profit to fall|falling rates of profit]] by driving down wages, cutting social benefits and pursuing military aggression. The [[Socialism (Marxism)|socialist]] system would succeed capitalism as humanity's mode of production through workers' [[revolution]]. According to Marxism, especially arising from [[Crisis theory]], [[Socialism]] is a historical necessity (but not an inevitability).<ref>Free will, non-predestination and non-determinism are emphasized in Marx’s famous quote "Men make their own history..." The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx 1852.</ref>
In a socialist society [[private property]] in the [[means of production]] would be superseded by co-operative ownership. A socialist economy would not base production on the creation of private profits, but would instead base production and economic activity on the criteria of satisfying human needs – that is, [[Production for use|production would be carried out directly for use]]. As Engels observed: "Then the capitalist mode of appropriation in which the product enslaves first the producer, and then appropriator, is replaced by the mode of appropriation of the product that is based upon the nature of the modern means of production; upon the one hand, direct social appropriation, as means to the maintenance and extension of production_ on the other, direct individual appropriation, as means of subsistence and of enjoyment."'<ref>Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, Chapter three 1882</ref>
==Concepts==
===Historical Materialism===
{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote="The discovery of the materialist conception of history, or rather, the consistent continuation and extension of materialism into the domain of social phenomenon, removed two chief defects of earlier historical theories. In the first place, they at best examined only the ideological motives of the historical activity of human beings, without grasping the objective laws governing the development of the system of social relations... in the second place, the earlier theories did not cover the activities of the ''masses'' of the population, whereas historical materialism made it possible for the first time to study with the accuracy of the [[natural sciences]] the social conditions of the life of the masses and the changes in these conditions."|source=Russian Marxist theoretician and revolutionary [[Vladimir Lenin]], 1913.<ref>[[#Len67|Lenin 1967 (1913)]]. p. 15.</ref>
}}
{{quote
|text ="Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand."|sign = [[Karl Marx]], ''[[Grundrisse]]'', 1858<ref>''Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy, by Karl Marx & Martin Nicolaus, ''Penguin Classics'', 1993, ISBN 0-14-044575-7, pg 265</ref>}}
The [[Historical materialism|historical materialist]] theory of history <ref>Evans, p. 53; Marx's account of the theory is the Preface to ''[[A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy]]'' (1859). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/index.htm].
Another exposition of the theory is in ''The German Ideology''. It, too, is available online from [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology marxists.org].
</ref> dialectically analyzes the underlying causes of societal development and change in the collective ways humans make their living. All constituent features of a society (social classes, political pyramid, ideologies) stem from economic activity, an idea often conveyed with the metaphor of the [[base and superstructure]].
The base and superstructure metaphor explains that the totality of social relations in and by which humans product and re-product their social existence, forms a society's economic ''base''. From this base rises a ''superstructure'' of political and legal institutions, i.e., [[ruling class]]. The base corresponds to the social consciousness (politics, religion, philosophy, etc.), and it conditions the superstructure and the dominant ideology. A conflict between the development of material productive forces and the relations of production provokes social revolutions, thus, the resultant changes to the economic base will lead to the transformation of the superstructure.<ref>See ''[[A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy]]'' (1859), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm Preface], Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1977, with some notes by R. Rojas,
and Engels: ''[[Anti-Dühring]]'' (1877), Introduction [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1877/anti-duhring/introduction.htm General]
</ref> This relationship is reflexive; At first the base gives rise to the superstructure and remains the foundation of a form of social organization. Hence, that formed social organization can act again upon both parts of the base and superstructure, whose relationship is not unilinear but [[dialectic]], namely a relationship driven by conflicts and contradictions. As Friedrich Engels clarified: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes."'<ref>Communist manifesto, chapter one 1847</ref>
Marx considered these socio-economic conflicts as the driving force of human history since these recurring conflicts have manifested themselves as distinct transitional stages of development in Western Europe. Accordingly Marx designates human history as encompassing four stages of development in relations of production.<ref>Marx does not claim to have produced a master-key to history. Historical materialism is not "an historico-philosophic theory of the ''marche generale'', imposed by fate upon every people, whatever the historic circumstances in which it finds itself", K. Marx, Letter to editor of the Russian newspaper paper ''Otetchestvennye Zapiskym'', 1877. He explains that his ideas are based upon a concrete study of the actual conditions in Europe.</ref>
# ''[[Primitive Communism]]:'' as in co-operative tribal societies.
# ''[[Slave]] Society:'' a development of tribal progression to city-state; aristocracy is born.
# ''[[Feudalism]]:'' aristocrats are the ruling class; merchants evolve into capitalists.
# ''[[Capitalism]]:'' capitalists are the ruling class, who create and employ the proletariat.
===Criticism of capitalism===
{{quote|"We are, in Marx's terms, 'an ensemble of social relations' and we live our lives at the core of the intersection of a number of unequal social relations based on hierarchically interrelated structures which, together, define the historical specificity of the capitalist modes of production and reproduction and underlay their observable manifestations."|Martha E. Gimenez, ''Marxism and Class, Gender and Race: Rethinking the Trilogy''<ref>Marxism and Class, Gender and Race: Rethinking the Trilogy, by Martha E. Gimenez, Published (2001) in ''Race, Gender and Class'', Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 23–33.</ref>}}
According to the Marxist theoretician and revolutionary [[Vladimir Lenin]], "the principal content of Marxism" was "Marx's economic doctrine".<ref>[[#Len67|Lenin 1967 (1913)]]. p. 07.</ref> Marx believed that the capitalist bourgeois and their economists were promoting what he saw as the lie that "The interests of the capitalist and those of the worker are... one and the same"; he believed that they did this by purporting the concept that "the fastest possible growth of productive [[Capital (economics)|capital]]" was best not only for the wealthy capitalists but also for the workers because it provided them with employment.<ref>[[#Mar49|Marx 1849]].</ref>
Exploitation is a matter of [[surplus labour]] – the amount of labour one performs beyond what one receives in goods. Exploitation has been a socio-economic feature of every class society, and is one of the principal features distinguishing the social classes. The power of one social class to control the [[means of production]] enables its exploitation of the other classes.
In capitalism, the [[labor theory of value|labour theory of value]] is the operative concern; the [[Value (economics)|value]] of a [[commodity (Marxism)|commodity]] equals the socially necessary labour time required to produce it. Under that condition, [[surplus value]] (the difference between the value produced and the value received by a labourer) is synonymous with the term "surplus labour"; thus, capitalist exploitation is realised as deriving surplus value from the worker.
In pre-capitalist economies, exploitation of the worker was achieved via physical coercion. In the capitalist mode of production, that result is more subtly achieved; because the worker does not own the means of production, he or she must voluntarily enter into an exploitive work relationship with a capitalist in order to earn the necessities of life. The worker's entry into such employment is voluntary in that he or she chooses which capitalist to work for. However, the worker must work or starve. Thus, exploitation is inevitable, and the "voluntary" nature of a worker participating in a capitalist society is illusory.
<!-- production not circulation; Marx emphasised that capitalism (''per se'') does not cheat the worker. -->
[[Marx's theory of alienation|Alienation]] is the estrangement of people from their humanity (<small>German:</small> ''Gattungswesen'', "species-essence", "species-being"), which is a systematic result of capitalism. Under capitalism, the fruits of production belong to the employers, who expropriate the surplus created by others, and so generate alienated labourers.<ref>"Alienation" entry, ''A Dictionary of Sociology''</ref> In Marx's view, alienation is an objective characterization of the worker's situation in capitalism – his or her self-awareness of this condition is not prerequisite.
===Social Classes===
The identity of a [[social class#Marxist|social class]] derives from its relationship to the [[means of production]]; Marx describes the [[social class]]es in capitalist societies:
* [[Proletariat]]: "those individuals who has nothing to offer but their [[labour power]], because in the capitalist mode of production, they do not own the means of production". As Andrei Platonov expressed "The working class is my home country and my future is linked with the proletariat."<ref>Andrei Platonov, the 20th-century Russian writer</ref> The capitalist mode of production establishes the conditions enabling the [[bourgeoisie]] to [[Exploitation (Marxism)|exploit]] the proletariat because the workers’ labour generates a [[surplus value]] greater than the workers’ [[wages]].
* [[Bourgeoisie]]: those who "own the means of production" and buy labour power from the proletariat, thus exploiting the proletariat; they subdivide as bourgeoisie and the petit bourgeoisie.
** [[Petit bourgeoisie]] are those who work and can afford to buy little labour power i.e. small business owners, peasant landlords, trade workers et al. Marxism predicts that the continual reinvention of the means of production eventually would destroy the petit bourgeoisie, degrading them from the middle class to the proletariat.
* [[Lumpenproletariat]]: The outcasts of society such as criminals, vagabonds, beggars, prostitutes, et al., who have no stake in the economy and no mind of their own and so are decoyed by every bidder.
* [[Landlords]]: an historically important social class who retain some wealth and power.
* [[Peasantry]] and [[farmers]]: a scattered class incapable of organizing and effecting socio-economic change, most of whom would enter the proletariat, and some become landlords.
[[Class consciousness]] denotes the awareness – of itself and the social world – that a [[social class]] possesses, and its capacity to rationally act in their best interests; hence, class consciousness is required ''before'' they can effect a successful revolution.
Without defining [[Ideology#Ideology as an instrument of social reproduction|ideology]],<ref>Joseph McCarney: ''[http://marxmyths.org/joseph-mccarney/article.htm Ideology and False Consciousness]'', April 2005</ref> Marx used the term to denote the production of images of social reality; according to Engels, "ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him remain unknown to him; otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process. Hence he imagines false or seeming motive forces".<ref>Engels: [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1893/letters/93_07_14.htm Letter] to [[Franz Mehring]], (London 14 July 1893), Donna Torr, translator, in ''Marx and Engels Correspondence'', International Publishers, 1968</ref> Because the ruling class controls the society’s means of production, the superstructure of society, the ruling social ideas are determined by the best interests of the said ruling class. In ''The German Ideology'', "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is, at the same time, its ruling intellectual force".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01b.htm|title=Karl Marx, ''The German Ideology''}}</ref>
The term '''[[political economy]]''' originally denoted the study of the conditions under which economic production was organised in the capitalist system. In Marxism, political economy studies the means of production, specifically of capital, and how that manifests as economic activity.
{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quote="Marxism taught me what society was. I was like a blindfolded man in a forest, who doesn't even know where north or south is. If you don't eventually come to truly understand the history of the [[class struggle]], or at least have a clear idea that society is divided between the rich and the poor, and that some people subjugate and exploit other people, you're lost in a forest, not knowing anything."|source=Cuban revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist politician [[Fidel Castro]] on discovering Marxism, 2009.<ref>[[#Cas09|Castro and Ramonet 2009]]. p. 100.</ref> }}
===Revolution, socialism, and communism===
Marxists believe that the transition from capitalism to socialism is an inevitable part of the development of human society; as Lenin stated, "it is evident that Marx deduces the inevitability of the transformation of capitalist society [into a socialist society] wholly and exclusively from the economic law of motion of contemporary society."<ref>[[#Len67|Lenin 1967 (1913)]]. p. 35.</ref>
Marxists believe that a socialist society will be far better for the majority of the populace than its capitalist counterpart, for instance, prior to the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian revolution]] of 1917, Lenin wrote that "The socialization of production is bound to lead to the conversion of the means of production into the property of society... This conversion will directly result in an immense increase in productivity of labour, a reduction of working hours, and the replacement of the remnants, the ruins of small-scale, primitive, disunited production by collective and improved labour."<ref>[[#Len67|Lenin 1967 (1913)]]. p. 35–36.</ref>
==Classical Marxism==
{{Main|Classical Marxism}}
The term '''Classical Marxism''' denotes the collection of socio-eco-political theories expounded by [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]. "Marxism, as Ernest Mandel remarked, is always open, always critical, always self-critical." <ref>Ernest Mandel, German Marxist.</ref> As such, Classical Marxism distinguishes between "Marxism" as broadly perceived, and "what Marx believed"; thus, in 1883, Marx wrote to the French labour leader [[Jules Guesde]] and to [[Paul Lafargue]] (Marx’s son-in-law) – both of whom claimed to represent Marxist principles – accusing them of "revolutionary phrase-mongering" and of denying the value of reformist struggle; from Marx's letter derives the paraphrase: "If that is Marxism, then I am not a Marxist".<ref>"Accusing Guesde and Lafargue of 'revolutionary phrase-mongering' and of denying the value of reformist struggles, Marx made his famous remark that, if their politics represented Marxism, 'ce qu'il y a de certain c'est que moi, je ne suis pas Marxiste' ('what is certain is that I myself am not a Marxist')." See: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/05/parti-ouvrier.htm</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Stuart|title=Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=9780415088039|page=418|coauthors=Dave Morely, Kuan-Hsing Chen|accessdate=4 March 2013|url=http://books.google.com/?id=EPENAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA418&dq=%22If+that+is+Marxism,+then+I+am+not+a+Marxist%22+hall#v=onepage&q=%22If%20that%20is%20Marxism%2C%20then%20I%20am%20not%20a%20Marxist%22%20hall&f=false|quote=I have no hesitation in saying that this represents a gigantic crudification and simplification of Marx's work – the kind of simplification and reductionism which once led him, in despair, to say "if that is marxism, then I am not a marxist"}}</ref> American Marxist scholar [[Hal Draper]] responded to this comment by saying, "there are few thinkers in modern history whose thought has been so badly misrepresented, by Marxists and anti-Marxists alike".<ref>Not found in search function at [http://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/index.htm Draper Arkiv]</ref>
===Criticism===
Some Marxists have criticised the academic [[institution]]alisation of Marxism for being too shallow and detached from political action. For instance, Zimbabwean [[Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] [[Alex Callinicos]], himself a professional academic, stated that "Its practitioners remind one of [[Narcissus (mythology)|Narcissus]], who in the Greek legend fell in love with his own reflection... Sometimes it is necessary to devote time to clarifying and developing the concepts that we use, but indeed for Western Marxists this has become an end in itself. The result is a body of writings incomprehensible to all but a tiny minority of highly qualified scholars."<ref>[[#Cal10|Callinicos 2010]]. p. 12.</ref>
==Academic Marxism==
[[File:Gordon Childe.jpg|200px|thumb|right|One of the 20th century's most prominent Marxist academics; the Australian archaeologist [[V. Gordon Childe]].]]
Marxism has been adopted by a large number of academics and other scholars working in various disciplines.
The [[Archaeological theory|theoretical development]] of [[Marxist archaeology]] was first developed in the Soviet Union in 1929, when a young archaeologist named Vladislav I. Ravdonikas (1894–1976) published a report entitled "For a Soviet history of material culture". Within this work, the very discipline of archaeology as it then stood was criticised as being inherently [[bourgeoisie]] and therefore anti-socialist, and so, as a part of the academic reforms instituted in the Soviet Union under the administration of Premier Stalin, a great emphasis was placed on the adoption of Marxist archaeology throughout the country.<ref>[[#Tri07|Trigger 2007]]. p. 326–340.</ref> These theoretical developments were subsequently adopted by archaeologists working in capitalist states outside of the Leninist bloc, most notably by the Australian academic [[V. Gordon Childe]] (1892–1957), who used Marxist theory in his understandings of the development of human society.<ref>[[#Gre81|Green 1981]]. p. 79.</ref>
==Political Marxism==
{{Refimprove section|date=October 2010}}
Since the late 19th century, Marxist-inspired socialist parties have been internally divided, between proponents of [[orthodox Marxism]] and proponents of [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist Marxism]], and between the respective revolutionary and reformist branches. [[Revolutionary socialism|Revolutionary]], [[Bolshevik]] leader [[Vladimir Lenin]], said that “the supersession of the [[bourgeois]] state by the [[Dictatorship of the proletariat|proletarian state]] is impossible without violent revolution”.<ref>Robert Vincent Daniels. A Documentary History of Communism in Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev. Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA: University of New England Press, 1993. Pp. 48.</ref> [[Reformism|Reformist]] and [[Democratic socialism|democratic socialist]] political theorist [[Michael Harrington]] claims that, in their later life, Engels and Marx had advocated the development of socialism through [[parliament]]ary means, where-ever possible.<ref>Michael Harrington. ''Socialism: Past and Future''. Reprint edition of original published in 1989. New York, New York, USA: Arcade Publishing, 2011. Pp. 42.</ref>
Since Marx's death in 1883, various groups around the world have appealed to Marxism as the theoretical basis for their politics and policies, which have often proved to be dramatically different and conflicting.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} One of the first major political splits occurred between the advocates of 'reformism', who argued that the transition to socialism could occur within existing [[bourgeois]] parliamentarian frameworks, and [[communism|communists]], who argued that the transition to a socialist society required a revolution and the dissolution of the capitalist state. The 'reformist' tendency, later known as [[social democracy]], came to be dominant in most of the parties affiliated to the [[Second International (politics)|Second International]] and these parties supported their own governments in the First World War.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} This issue caused the communists to break away, forming their own parties which became members of the [[Third International]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
The following countries had governments at some point in the 20th century who at least nominally adhered to Marxism:<ref>{{cite book |last=Service|first=Robert|title=Comrades: Communism: A World History|year=2008|publisher=Pan MacMillan|isbn=0-330-43968-5|postscript=<!-- Bot inserted parameter. Either remove it; or change its value to "." for the cite to end in a ".", as necessary. -->{{inconsistent citations}}}}</ref>
[[Albania]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Angola]], [[Benin]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Chile]], [[China]], [[Republic of Congo]], [[Cuba]], [[Czechoslovakia]], [[East Germany]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Grenada]], [[Hungary]], [[Laos]], [[Moldova]], [[Mongolia]], [[Mozambique]], [[Nepal]], [[Nicaragua]], [[North Korea]], [[Poland]], [[Romania]], [[Russia]], the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] and [[Republics of the Soviet Union|its republics]], [[South Yemen]], [[Yugoslavia]], [[Venezuela]], [[Vietnam]]. In addition, out of twenty eight Indian states, three state viz. [[Kerala]], [[Tripura]] and [[West Bengal]] have had Marxist governments, but change occurred through electoral processes. Some of these governments such as in [[Venezuela]], [[Nicaragua]], [[Chile]], [[Moldova]] and [[India]] have been democratic in nature and maintained regular [[multiparty democracy|multiparty elections]].
===History===
The 1917 [[October Revolution]], led by [[Vladimir Lenin]], was the first large scale attempt to put Marxist ideas about a workers' state into practice. The new government faced counter-revolution, civil war and foreign intervention.<ref name="redoctoberobstacles">{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/events/revolution/index.htm|title=Documents on the Russian Revolution|work=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]|accessdate=16 May 2011}}</ref> Lenin consistently explained "this elementary truth of Marxism, that the victory of socialism requires the joint efforts of workers in a number of advanced countries" (Lenin, Sochineniya (Works), 5th ed Vol XLIV p418.) It could not be developed in Russia in isolation, he argued, but needed to be spread internationally.
The 1917 October Revolution did help inspire a revolutionary wave over the years that followed,<ref name="bavarianrevolution">{{cite web |url=http://www.historicaleye.com/Munich1.html|title=historicaleye.com|last=Rees|first=Simon|accessdate=16 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="hungaryrevolution">{{cite web |url=http://en.internationalism.org/ir/139/1919-Hungarian-Revolution-01|title=The Hungarian Revolution of 1919 (i)|International Communist Current|accessdate=16 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="germanrevolution">{{cite web |url=http://libcom.org/history/working-class-activity-councils-germany-1918%E2%80%911923-peter-rachleff|title=Working-class activity and councils – Germany 1918‑1923 – Peter Rachleff|libcom.org|accessdate=16 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="germanrevolution2">{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/subject/germany-1918-23/|title=The History of the German Revolution: 1918–1923|work=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]|accessdate=16 May 2011}}</ref> with the development of Communist Parties worldwide, but without success in the vital advanced capitalist countries of Western Europe. Socialist revolution in [[Germany]] and other western countries failed, leaving the [[Soviet Union]] on its own. An intense period of debate and stopgap solutions ensued, [[war communism]] and the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP). Lenin died and [[Joseph Stalin]] gradually assumed control, eliminating rivals and consolidating power as the Soviet Union faced the events of the 1930s and its global crisis-tendencies. Amidst the geopolitical threats which defined the period and included the probability of invasion, he instituted a ruthless program of [[industrialization]] which, while successful,<ref name="stalinindustrialise">{{cite web |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/collect.html|title=Collectivization and Industrialization|work=[[Ibiblio]]|accessdate=16 May 2011}}</ref> was executed at great cost in human suffering, along with long-term environmental devastation.<ref name="stalinindustrialise" />
Modern followers of [[Leon Trotsky]] maintain that as predicted by Lenin, Trotsky, and others already in the 1920s, Stalin's "socialism in one country" was unable to maintain itself, and according to some Marxist critics, the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] ceased to show the characteristics of a socialist state long before its formal dissolution.
In the 1920s the [[economic calculation debate]] between [[Austrian School|Austrian Economists]] and Marxist economists took place. The Austrians claimed that Marxism is flawed because prices could not be set to recognize opportunity costs of factors of production, and so [[socialism]] could not make rational decisions.
The [[Kuomintang]] party, a Chinese nationalist revolutionary party, had Marxist members who opposed the Chinese Communist Party. They viewed the Chinese revolution in different terms than the Communists, claiming that China had already passed its feudal stage and was in a stagnation period rather than in another mode of production. These Marxists in the Kuomintang opposed the Chinese communist party ideology.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/?id=usOMZjTWrJ0C&pg=PA207&dq=china+stagnated+feudalism+political#v=onepage&q=guomindang%20marxists&f=false|title=Feudalism and non-European societies|author=T. J. Byres, Harbans Mukhia|year=1985|publisher=Psychology Press|location=|page=207|isbn=0-7146-3245-7|pages=|accessdate=2010-11-28}}</ref>
Following [[World War II]], Marxist ideology, often with Soviet military backing, spawned a rise in revolutionary communist parties all over the world. Some of these parties were eventually able to gain power, and establish their own version of a Marxist state. Such nations included the [[People's Republic of China]], [[Vietnam]], [[Romania]], [[East Germany]], [[Albania]], [[Cambodia]], [[Ethiopia]], [[South Yemen]], [[Yugoslavia]], [[Cuba]], and others. In some cases, these nations did not get along. Rifts occurred between the Soviet Union and China,<ref name="sinosovietsplit">{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sino-soviet-split/index.htm|title=The Great Debate: Documents of the Sino-Soviet Split.|work=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]|accessdate=16 May 2011}}</ref> as well as Soviet Union and Yugoslavia (in 1948), whose leaders disagreed on certain elements of Marxism and how it should be implemented into society.<ref name="titostalinsplit">{{cite web |url=http://www.marxist.com/History-old/yugoslavia48.html|title=Behind the Stalin-Tito Clash|accessdate=16 May 2011}}</ref>
Many of these self-proclaimed Marxist nations (often styled [[People's Republic]]s) eventually became authoritarian states, with stagnating economies. This caused some debate about whether Marxism was doomed in practise or these nations were in fact not led by "true Marxists". Critics of Marxism speculated that perhaps Marxist ideology itself was to blame for the nations' various problems. Followers of the currents within Marxism which opposed Stalin, principally cohered around [[Leon Trotsky]], tended to locate the failure at the level of the failure of [[world revolution]]: for communism to have succeeded, they argue, it needed to encompass all the international trading relationships that capitalism had previously developed.
The Chinese experience seems to be unique. Rather than falling under a single family's self-serving and dynastic interpretation of Marxism as happened in North Korea and before 1989 in Eastern Europe, the Chinese government – after the end of the struggles over the Mao legacy in 1980 and the ascent of Deng Xiaoping – seems to have solved the succession crises{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} that have plagued self-proclaimed Leninist governments since the death of Lenin himself. Key to this success is another Leninism which is a NEP ([[New Economic Policy]]) writ very large; Lenin's own NEP of the 1920s was the "permission" given to markets including speculation to operate by the Party which retained final control. The Russian experience in [[Perestroika]] was that markets under socialism were so opaque as to be both inefficient and corrupt but especially after China's application to join the [[WTO]] this does not seem to apply universally.
The death of "Marxism" in China has been prematurely announced but since the Hong Kong handover in 1997, the Beijing leadership has clearly retained final say over both commercial and political affairs.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
In 1991 the Soviet Union was dismantled and the new Russian state, alongside the other emerging republics, ceased to identify themselves with Marxism. Other nations around the world followed suit. Since then, radical Marxism or Communism has generally ceased to be a prominent political force in global politics, and has largely been replaced by more moderate versions of democratic socialism – or, more commonly, by [[neoliberalism|neoliberal]] capitalism. Marxism has also had to engage with the rise in the [[Environmental movement]]. Theorists including [[Joel Kovel]] and [[Michael Löwy]] have synthesized Marxism, [[socialism]], [[ecology]] and [[environmentalism]] into an ideology known as [[Eco-socialism]].<ref>{{cite web |title=An Ecosocialist Manifesto|url=http://www.iefd.org/manifestos/ecosocialist_manifesto.php|publisher=International Endowment for Democracy|accessdate=2 September 2010|author=Joel Kovel|coauthors=Michael Löwy|date=September 2001}}</ref>
===Social democracy===
{{main|Social democracy}}
{{Social democracy sidebar}}
[[Social democracy]] is a [[political ideology]] that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century. Many parties in the second half of the 19th century described themselves as social democratic, such as the British [[Social Democratic Federation]], and the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]]. In most cases these were revolutionary socialist or Marxist groups, who were not only seeking to introduce socialism, but also democracy in un-democratic countries. Many social democrats reject the idea that socialism can be accomplished only through [[class conflict]], revolution and [[dictatorship of the proletariat]].
The modern social democratic current came into being through a break within the socialist movement in the early 20th century, between two groups holding different views on the ideas of [[Karl Marx]]. Many related movements, including [[pacifism]], [[anarchism]], and [[syndicalism]], arose at the same time (often by splitting from the main socialist movement, but also through the emergence of new theories) and had various, quite different objections to Marxism. The social democrats argued that socialism should be achieved through evolution rather than revolution. Such views were strongly opposed by the revolutionary socialists,<ref name="apriltheses">{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/apr/04.htm|title=V. I. Lenin: The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution (a.k.a. the April Theses)|work=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]|accessdate=17 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="stateandrevolution">{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/|title=The State and Revolution|last=Lenin|first=Vladimir|work=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]|language=an English Translation|accessdate=17 May 2011}}</ref> who argued that any attempt to reform capitalism was doomed to fail, because the reformists would be gradually corrupted and eventually turn into capitalists themselves.
Despite their differences, the reformist and revolutionary branches of socialism remained united until the outbreak of [[World War I]]. The war proved to be the final straw that pushed the tensions between them to breaking point.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} The reformist socialists supported their respective national governments in the war, a fact that was seen by the revolutionary socialists as outright treason against the [[working class]] (Since{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}} it betrayed the principle that the workers "have no nation", and the fact that usually the lowest classes are the ones sent into the war to fight, and die, putting the cause at the side). Bitter arguments ensued within socialist parties, as for example between [[Eduard Bernstein]] (reformist socialist) and [[Rosa Luxemburg]] (revolutionary socialist) within the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD). Eventually, after the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]], most of the world's socialist parties fractured. The reformist socialists kept the name "Social democrats", while the revolutionary socialists began calling themselves "Communists", and soon formed the modern [[Communist]] movement, the [[Comintern]].
Since the 1920s, doctrinal differences have been constantly growing between social democrats and Communists (who themselves are not unified on the way to achieve socialism), and Social Democracy is mostly used as a specifically Central European label for [[List of Labour Parties|Labour Parties]] since then, especially in Germany and the Netherlands and especially since the 1959 [[Godesberg Program]] of the German SPD that rejected the praxis of class struggle altogether.
===Socialism===
{{main|Socialism|Socialism (Marxism)}}
{{Socialism sidebar}}
The term ''socialism'' refers to two fundamentally different ideologies – [[democratic socialism]] and Marxist-Leninist socialism. The Marxist-Leninists sought to work towards a classless, stateless, moneyless society with a Marxist ideology by first creating a socialist state, which represents the proletariat. On the other hand, democratic socialists attempt to work towards an ideal state by social reform and are often little different from social democrats, with the democratic socialists having a more leftist stance.
The Marxist-Leninist form of government has been in decline since the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] and its satellite states. Very few countries have governments that describe themselves as socialist in the Marxist sense; as of 2012, only [[Laos]], [[Vietnam]], [[Nepal]], [[Cuba]], and the [[People's Republic of China]] do so.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
On the contrary, electoral parties that describe themselves as [[socialist]] or [[democratic socialist]] are on the rise, joined together by international organizations such as the [[Socialist International]] and the [[Fourth International]]. Parties described as socialist are currently dominant in the democracies of the developing world and serve as the ruling party or the main opposition party in most European democracies. [[Eco-socialism]], and [[Green politics]] with a strong leftist tinge, are on the rise in European democracies.
The characterization of a party or government often has little to do with its actual economical and social platform. The government of [[mainland China]], which describes itself as socialist, allows a large private sector to flourish and is socially conservative compared to most Western democracies. A more specific example is universal health-care, which is a trademark issue of many European socialist parties but does not exist in mainland China. Therefore, the historical and cultural aspects of a movement must be taken into context in order for one to arrive at an accurate conclusion of its political ideology from its nominal characterization.
===Communism===
{{main|Communist state}}
{{Communism sidebar |Variants}}
A number of states declared an allegiance to the principles of Marxism and have been ruled by self-described Communist Parties, either as a [[single-party state]] or a single list, which includes formally several parties, as was the case in the [[German Democratic Republic]]. Due to the absolute dominance of the Communist Party in their governments, these states are often called "communist states" by Western political scientists. However, they have described themselves as "socialist", reserving the term "communism" for a future classless society,<ref name="marxismandnationalquestion" /> in which the state would no longer be necessary (on this understanding of communism, "communist state" would be an [[oxymoron]]){{spaced ndash}}for instance, the [[USSR]] was the Union of Soviet ''Socialist'' Republics.
Communist governments have historically been characterized by state ownership of productive resources in a [[centrally planned economy]] and sweeping campaigns of economic restructuring such as [[nationalization]] of industry and [[land reform]] (often focusing on [[collective farming]] or state farms.) While they promote collective [[ownership]] of the means of production, Communist governments have been characterized by a totaliterian state apparatus in which decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party. Libertarian communists have characterized the Soviet model as [[state socialism]] or [[state capitalism]] since the concentrated state played the part formerly capitalist played in economy.
====Marxism–Leninism====
{{main|Marxism–Leninism|Leninism}}
{{Marxism–Leninism sidebar |Related}}
Marxism-Leninism, strictly speaking, refers to the ideology based upon the [[Marxian economics|economic theories of Marx]] and the [[Revolutionary politics|revolutionary political theories]] developed by [[Vladimir Lenin]] known as [[Leninism]]. However, in various contexts, different (and sometimes opposing) political groups have used the term "Marxism–Leninism" to denote the ideologies that they claimed to be upholding. The core ideological features of Marxism-Leninism are those of Marxism and Leninism, that is to say, belief in the necessity of a [[revolutionary socialism|revolutionary]] overthrow of capitalism through [[communist revolution]], to be followed by a [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] as the first stage of moving towards [[communism]], and the need for a [[vanguard party]] to lead the [[proletariat]] in this effort. Those who view themselves as Marxist-Leninists, however, vary with regards to the leaders and thinkers that they choose to uphold as progressive (and to what extent).{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
Leninism holds that capitalism can only be overthrown by revolutionary means; that is, any attempts to ''reform'' capitalism from within, such as [[Social Democracy]], [[Fabianism]] and non-revolutionary forms of [[democratic socialism]], are doomed to fail due to the inherent contradictions of the capitalist and labour class relations.<ref name="marxismandnationalquestion">{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1913/03.htm|title=Marxism and the National Question|work=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]|accessdate=25 May 2011}}</ref> The first goal of a Leninist party is to educate the proletariat, so as to remove the various modes of perceived [[false consciousness]] the [[bourgeois]] have instilled in them, instilled in order to make them more docile and easier to exploit economically, such as [[religion]] and [[nationalism]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} Once the proletariat has gained [[class consciousness]] the party will coordinate the proletariat's total might to overthrow the bourgeois government, thus the proletariat will seize all political and economic power. Lastly the proletariat (thanks to their education by the party) will implement a [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] which would bring upon them the construction and development of socialism, the lower phase of communism. After this, partisan and non-partisan distinction would essentially dissolve as the entire proletariat is elevated to the level of revolutionaries.
The dictatorship of the proletariat refers to the absolute power of the working class. It is governed by a system of proletarian [[direct democracy]], in which [[soviet democracy|workers hold political power through local councils]], known in the [[Russian Revolution]] as "[[soviet (council)|soviets]]".
====Trotskyism====
{{main|Trotskyism}}
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by [[Leon Trotsky]]. Trotsky considered himself a [[Bolshevik]]-[[Leninism|Leninist]], arguing for the establishment of a [[vanguard party]]. He considered himself an advocate of orthodox Marxism. His politics differed sharply from those of [[Stalinism|Stalin]] or [[Maoism|Mao]], most importantly in declaring the need for an international "[[permanent revolution]]". Numerous groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist and see themselves as standing in this tradition, although they have diverse interpretations of the conclusions to be drawn from this.
Trotsky advocated [[proletarian revolution]] as set out in his theory of "[[permanent revolution]]", and he argued that in countries where the [[bourgeois]]-[[democratic]] revolution had not triumphed already (in other words, in places that had not yet implemented a capitalist democracy, such as Russia before 1917), it was necessary that the proletariat make it permanent by carrying out the tasks of the social revolution (the "socialist" or "communist" revolution) at the same time, in an uninterrupted process. Trotsky believed that a new socialist state would not be able to hold out against the pressures of a hostile capitalist world unless socialist revolutions quickly took hold in other countries as well, especially in the industrial powers with a developed proletariat.
On the [[political spectrum]] of Marxism, Trotskyists are considered to be on the left. They fervently support democracy, oppose political deals with the imperialist powers, and advocate a spreading of the revolution until it becomes global.
Trotsky developed the theory that the Russian workers' state had become a "[[Degenerated workers' state|bureaucratically degenerated workers' state]]". Capitalist rule had not been restored, and nationalized industry and economic planning, instituted under Lenin, were still in effect.<ref name=TrotskyTRB>{{cite web|last=Trotsky|first=Leon|title=''The Revolution Betrayed''|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/ch09.htm|work=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]|accessdate=5 June 2013|quote=The Soviet Union is a contradictory society halfway between capitalism and socialism, in which: (a) the productive forces are still far from adequate to give the state property a socialist character; (b) the tendency toward primitive accumulation created by want breaks out through innumerable pores of the planned economy; ... (g) a further development of the accumulating contradictions can as well lead to socialism as back to capitalism; (h) on the road to capitalism the counterrevolution would have to break the resistance of the workers; (i) on the road to socialism the workers would have to overthrow the bureaucracy.}}</ref> However, the state was controlled by a bureaucratic caste with interests hostile to those of the working class. Trotsky defended the Soviet Union against attack from imperialist powers and against internal [[counter-revolution]], but called for a [[political revolution]] within the USSR to restore socialist democracy. He argued that if the working class did not take power away from the Stalinist bureaucracy, the bureaucracy would restore capitalism in order to enrich itself.<ref name=TrotskyTRB /> In the view of many Trotskyists, this is exactly what has happened since the beginning of [[Glasnost]] and [[Perestroika]] in the USSR. Some{{who|date=October 2010}} argue that the adoption of [[market socialism]] by the [[People's Republic of China]] has also led to capitalist counter-revolution.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} Most modern Trotskyist organisations are organised internationally, such as the [[International Marxist Tendency]], [[International Socialist Tendency]] and the [[Committee for a Workers' International]]. They are mostly rather small groupings.
====Maoism====
{{main|Maoism}}
{{Maoism sidebar}}
Maoism or ''Mao Zedong Thought'' ({{zh|s=毛泽东思想|t=毛澤東思想|p=Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng}}), is a variant of [[Marxism–Leninism]] derived from the teachings of the [[People's Republic of China|Chinese]] [[communist]] leader [[Mao Zedong]] ([[Wade-Giles transliteration]]: "Mao Tse-tung").
The term "Mao Zedong Thought" has always been the preferred term by the [[Communist Party of China]], and the word "Maoism" has never been used in its English-language publications except [[pejorative]]ly. Likewise, Maoist groups{{Which|date=November 2010}} outside China have usually called themselves Marxist-Leninist rather than Maoist, a reflection of Mao's view that he did not change, but only developed, Marxism-Leninism. However, some{{Who|date=November 2008}} Maoist groups believing Mao's theories to have been sufficiently substantial additions to the basics of the [[Marxist]] [[wikt:canon|canon]], call themselves "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" (MLM) or simply "Maoist".
In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong Thought is part of the official doctrine of the Communist Party of China, but since the 1978 beginning of [[Deng Xiaoping]]'s [[market economy]]-oriented reforms, the concept of "[[socialism with Chinese characteristics]]" has come to the forefront of Chinese politics, [[Chinese economic reform]] has taken hold, and the official definition and role of Mao's original [[ideology]] in the PRC has been radically altered and reduced (see ''[[History of China]]'').
Unlike the earlier forms of Marxism-Leninism in which the urban [[proletariat]] was seen as the main source of revolution, and the countryside was largely ignored, Mao believed that peasantry could be the main force behind a revolution, ''led'' by the proletariat and a vanguard Communist party. The model for this was of course the Chinese communist rural Protracted People's War of the 1920s and 1930s, which eventually brought the Communist Party of China to power.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} Furthermore, unlike other forms of Marxism-Leninism in which large-scale industrial development was seen as a positive force, Maoism made all-round rural development the priority.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
Mao felt that this strategy made sense during the early stages of socialism in a country in which most of the people were peasants.
Unlike most other political ideologies, including other [[socialist]] and Marxist ones, Maoism contains an integral [[military]] doctrine and explicitly connects its political ideology with [[military strategy]]. In Maoist thought, "political power grows from the barrel of the gun" (a famous quote by Mao), and the [[peasantry]] can be mobilized to undertake a "[[people's war]]" of armed struggle involving [[guerrilla warfare]] in three stages.
====Socialism with Chinese characteristics====
{{main|Socialism with Chinese characteristics}}
Socialism with Chinese characteristics ({{zh | t={{linktext|中國|特色|社會主義}} | s={{linktext|中国|特色|社会主义}} | p=Zhōngguótèsè shèhuìzhǔyì}}), literally the modern form of Chinese Marxism, is the official ideology of the CPC based upon [[scientific socialism]]. This ideology supports the creation of a [[socialist market economy]] dominated by the public sector since China is in the [[primary stage of socialism]]. The Chinese government maintains that it has not abandoned Marxism but has developed many of the terms and concepts of Marxist theory to accommodate reality. The CPC argues that socialism is compatible with these economic policies. In current Chinese Communist thinking, China is in the [[primary stage of socialism]]{{mdash}}a view which explains the Chinese government's flexible economic policies to develop into an industrialized nation.
====Left communism====
{{main|Left communism}}
{{Left communism sidebar}}
{{POV-check|section|date=May 2011}}
Left communism is the range of [[Communism|communist]] viewpoints held by the Communist Left, which criticizes the political ideas of the [[Bolsheviks]] from a position that is asserted to be more authentically [[Marxist]] and [[Proletariat|proletarian]] than the views of [[Leninism]] held by the [[Communist International]] after its first two Congresses.
Two major traditions can be observed within Left communism: the [[Netherlands|Dutch]]-[[Germany|German]] tradition; and the [[Italy|Italian]] tradition. The political positions those traditions have in common are a shared opposition to what is termed ''[[frontism]]'', [[nationalism]], all kinds of national liberation movements and [[parliamentarianism]] and there is an underlying commonality at a level of abstract theory. Crucially, Left Communist groups from both traditions tend to identify elements of commonality in each other.{{Vague|date=October 2010}}
The historical origins of Left Communism can be traced to the period before the [[World War I|First World War]], but it only came into focus after 1918 . All{{According to whom|date=October 2010}} Left Communists were supportive of the [[October Revolution]] in [[Russia]],{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} but retained a critical view of its development. Some{{Which|date=November 2010}}, however, would in later years come to reject the idea that the revolution had a [[proletarian]] or [[socialist]] nature, asserting that it had simply carried out the tasks of the [[bourgeois]] revolution by creating a [[state capitalism|state capitalist]] system.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}
Left Communism first came into being as a clear movement in or around 1918.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} Its essential features were: a stress on the need to build a [[Communist Party]] entirely separate from the [[reformist]] and [[Centrist Marxism|centrist]] elements who were seen as having betrayed [[socialism]] in 1914, opposition to all but the most restricted participation in [[elections]], and an emphasis on the need for revolutionaries to move on the offensive.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} Apart from that, there was little in common between the various wings. Only the Italians{{Or|date=October 2010}} accepted the need for electoral work at all for a very short period of time, and the German-Dutch, Italian and Russian wings opposed the "right of nations to self-determination", which they denounced as a form of [[bourgeois nationalism]].
===Dispute that the Soviet Union was Marxist===
Marx defined "communism" as a classless, egalitarian and stateless society. To Marx, the notion of a communist state would have seemed an oxymoron,<ref name="State Capitalism">[http://www.marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1941/ussr-capitalist.htm ''The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a Capitalist Society''] Raya Dunayevskaya under the name of Freddie James 1941</ref><ref name="Guide to the Communist Manifesto">[http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/manifesto.html Communist Manifesto Study Questions<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name="Never Been A Communist Regime">[http://www.historiography101.blogspot.com/2006_12_10_archive.html Anomalistic History<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> as he defined communism as the phase reached when class society and the state had already been abolished. Once the lower stage towards communism, commonly referred to as socialism, had been established, society would develop new social relations over the course of several generations, reaching what Marx called the higher phase of communism when not only bourgeois relations but all class social relations had been abandoned. Such a development has yet to occur in any historical self-claimed socialist state.<ref name="State Capitalism"/><ref name="Guide to the Communist Manifesto"/><ref name="Never Been A Communist Regime"/>
Even within the Stalinist state at its height, there were repressed<ref name="State Capitalism"/> expressions of Marxist orthodoxy, revealed after the fall of the USSR, arguing that it had developed new class structures: those who are in government and therefore have power (sometimes referred to as the [[political class]]), and those who are not in government and do not have power, the working class. This is taken to be a different form of capitalism, in which the government, as owner of the means of production, takes on the role formerly played by the capitalist class; this arrangement is referred to as "[[state capitalism]]."<ref name="State Capitalism"/> These statist regimes have generally followed a [[planned economy]] model without making a transition to this hypothetical final stage.<ref name="chomsky.info"/>
Some academics such as [[Noam Chomsky]] dispute the claim that the political movements in the former Soviet Union were Marxist.<ref name="chomsky.info">[http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1986----.htm ''The Soviet Union Versus Socialism''] Chomsky, 1986</ref> Communist governments have historically been characterized by state ownership of productive resources in a [[planned economy]] and sweeping campaigns of economic restructuring such as [[nationalization]] of industry and [[land reform]] (often focusing on [[collective farming]] or state farms). While they promote collective [[ownership]] of the means of production, Communist governments have been characterized by a strong state apparatus in which decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party. Dissident communists have characterized the Soviet model as [[state socialism]] or [[state capitalism]].
==Variants==
Marxists can interpret the ''Manifesto'' differently, and therefore all variants cannot be covered in this article.
===Marxism-Leninism===
{{Main|Marxism-Leninism}}
At least in terms of adherents and the impact on the world stage, Marxism-Leninism, also known colloquially as [[Bolshevism]] or simply [[communism]] is the biggest trend within Marxism, easily dwarfing all of the other schools of thought combined.<ref>For example, the Communist Party of China alone has more than 66 million members. See http://www.chinatoday.com/org/cpc/</ref> Marxism-Leninism is a term originally coined by the [[CPSU]] in order to denote the ideology that [[Vladimir Lenin]] had built upon the thought of [[Karl Marx]]. There are two broad areas that have set apart Marxism-Leninism as a school of thought.
First, Lenin's followers generally view his additions to the body of Marxism as the practical corollary to Marx's original theoretical contributions of the 19th century; insofar as they apply under the conditions of advanced capitalism that they found themselves working in. Lenin called this time-frame the era of [[Imperialism]]. For example, [[Joseph Stalin]] wrote that {{Cquote|Leninism grew up and took shape under the conditions of imperialism, when the contradictions of capitalism had reached an extreme point, when the proletarian revolution had become an immediate practical question, when the old period of preparation of the working class for revolution had arrived at and passed into a new period, that of direct assault on capitalism.<ref>[http://www.marx2mao.com/Stalin/FL24.html#c1 The Foundations of Leninism<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>}}
The most important consequence of a Leninist-style theory of Imperialism is the strategic need for workers in the industrialized countries to bloc or ally with the oppressed nations contained within their respective countries' colonies abroad in order to overthrow capitalism. This is the source of the slogan, which shows the Leninist conception that not only the proletariat, as is traditional to Marxism, are the sole revolutionary force, but all oppressed people:{{Cquote|'''Workers''' and Oppressed Peoples of the World, Unite!<ref>[http://www.workers.org/2008/us/ww_1982_1120/ The right of self-determination and the class struggle<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>}}
Second, the other distinguishing characteristic of Marxism-Leninism is how it approaches the question of organization. Lenin believed that the traditional model of the Social Democratic parties of the time, which was a loose, multitendency organization was inadequate for overthrowing the Tsarist regime in Russia. He proposed a cadre of professional revolutionaries that disciplined itself under the model of [[Democratic Centralism]].
===Marxism-Leninism after Stalin===
For better or worse, Marxism-Leninism as a body of thought and practice was closely identified with the figure of Joseph Stalin after the death of Lenin. After the death of Stalin, the leader of the USSR, [[Nikita Khrushchev]] made several ideological and practical ruptures with his predecessor which lead to the eventual split of Marxism-Leninism into two main branches, post-Stalin "Moscow-aligned" communism and [[anti-revisionism]]. In turn, these branches evolved into multiple schools of thought over time.
===Post-Stalin Moscow-aligned communism===
At the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], Khrushchev made several ideological ruptures with his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. First, Khrushchev denounced the so-called [[Cult of Personality]] that had developed around Stalin, which ironically enough Khrushchev had had a pivotal role in fostering decades earlier. More importantly, however, Khrushchev rejected the heretofore orthodox Marxist-Leninist tenet that class struggle continues even under socialism. Rather, the State ought to rule in the name of all classes. A related principle that flowed from the former was the notion of [[peaceful co-existence]], or that the newly emergent socialist bloc could peacefully compete with the capitalist world, solely by developing the productive forces of society.
====Eurocommunism====
Beginning around the 1970s, various communist parties in Western Europe, such as the [[Italian Communist Party|Partito Comunista Italiano]] in Italy and the [[Communist Party of Spain (main)|Partido Comunista de España]] under [[Santiago Carillo]] tried to hew to a more independent line from Moscow. Particularly in Italy, they leaned on the theories of [[Antonio Gramsci]], despite the fact that by 1921 Gramsci believed that a Communist Party in the [[Leninist]] sense was needed. This trend went by the name [[Eurocommunism]].
===Anti-revisionism===
There are many proponents of Marxist-Leninism who rejected the theses of Khrushchev. They believed that Khrushchev was unacceptably altering or "revising" the fundamental tenets of Marxism-Leninism, a stance from which the label "anti-revisionist" is derived. Usually, they are referred to externally by the following epithets, although anti-revisionists typically refer to themselves simply as Marxist-Leninists.
====Maoism====
[[Maoism]] takes its name from [[Mao Zedong]], the erstwhile leader of the [[People's Republic of China]]; it is the variety of [[anti-revisionism]] that took inspiration, and in some cases received material support, from China, especially during the Mao period. There are several key concepts that were developed by Mao. First, Mao concurred with Stalin that not only does class struggle continue under the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], it actually accelerates as long as gains are being made by the proletariat at the expense of the disenfranchised bourgeoisie. Second, Mao developed a strategy for revolution called [[Prolonged People's War]] in what he termed the [[semi-feudal]] countries of the Third World. Prolonged People's War relied heavily on the peasantry. Third, Mao wrote many theoretical articles on epistemology and dialectics, which he called [[contradictions]].
====Hoxhaism====
[[Hoxhaism]], so named because of the central contribution of Albanian statesman [[Enver Hoxha]], was closely aligned with the [[People's Republic of China]] for a number of years, but grew critical of [[Maoism]] because of the so-called [[Three Worlds Theory]] put forth by elements within the [[Communist Party of China]] and because it viewed the actions of Chinese leader [[Deng Xiaoping]] unfavorably. Ultimately, however, Hoxhaism as a trend came to the understanding that Socialism had never existed in China at all.
===Trotskyism===
{{Main|Trotskyism}}
Trotskyism is the usual term for followers of the ideas of Russian Marxist [[Leon Trotsky]], the second most prominent leader of the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian Revolution]]. Trotsky was a contemporary of Lenin from the early years of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]], where he led a small trend in competition with both Lenin's [[Bolsheviks]] and the [[Mensheviks]]; nevertheless Trotsky's followers claim to be the heirs of Lenin in the same way that mainstream Marxist-Leninists do. There are several distinguishing characteristics of this school of thought; foremost is the theory of [[Permanent Revolution]]. Another shared characteristic between Trotskyists is a variety of theoretical justifications for their negative appraisal of the post-Lenin Soviet Union; that is to say, after Trotsky was expelled by a majority vote from the CPSU<ref>[http://www.plp.org/books/Stalin/node14.html#SECTION00500000000000000000]{{dead link|date=June 2012}}</ref> and subsequently from the Soviet Union. Trotsky characterized the government of the USSR after his expulsion as being dominated by a "bureaucratic caste" and called for it to be overthrown.<ref>"The characterisation of the anti-bureaucratic revolution as "political revolution" referred to the fact that the bureaucracy had politically expropriated the proletariat ..." http://www.radicalsocialist.in/index.php/articles/marxist-theory/100-capitalist-restoration-in-the-former-soviet-union</ref>
===Left Communism===
{{Main|Left Communism}}
Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the communist left, which criticizes the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position that is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views of Leninism held by the Communist International after its first two congresses.
Although she lived before left communism became a distinct tendency, [[Rosa Luxemburg]] has been heavily influential for most left communists, both politically and theoretically. Proponents of left communism have included [[Herman Gorter]], [[Anton Pannekoek]], [[Otto Rühle]], [[Karl Korsch]], [[Amadeo Bordiga]], and [[Paul Mattick]].
Prominent left communist groups existing today include the International Communist Current and the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party. Also, different factions from the old Bordigist International Communist Party are considered left communist organizations.
===Western Marxism===
{{Main|Western Marxism}}
Western Marxism includes a wide variety of [[Marxist theory|Marxist theoreticians]] based in [[Western Europe|Western]] and [[Central Europe]] (and more recently [[North America]] ), in contrast with [[philosophy in the Soviet Union]], the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] or [[the People's Republic of China]].
===Structural Marxism===
{{Main|Structural Marxism}}
Structural Marxism is an approach to Marxism based on [[structuralism]], primarily associated with the work of the French theorist [[Louis Althusser]] and his students.In Althusser's theory, the structural order of the capitalist mode of production is distinct both from the actual, real agents involved in its relations and from the ideological forms in which those relations are understood. Structural Marxism was influential in France during the late 1960s and 1970s, and also came to influence philosophers, political theorists and sociologists outside of France during the 1970s.
===Autonomist Marxism===
{{Main|Autonomism}}
[[Autonomism]] is a term applied to a variety of social movements around the world, which emphasizes the ability to organize in autonomous and horizontal networks, as opposed to hierarchical structures such as unions or parties. Autonomist Marxists, including [[Harry Cleaver]], broaden the definition of the working-class to include salaried and unpaid labour, such as skilled professions and housework; it focuses on the working class in advanced capitalist states as the primary force of change in the construct of capital. Modern autonomist theorists such as [[Antonio Negri]] and [[Michael Hardt]] argue that network power constructs are the most effective methods of organization against the neoliberal regime of accumulation, and predict a massive shift in the dynamics of capital into a 21st-century [[Empire (book)|Empire]].
===Marxist humanism===
{{Main|Marxist humanism}}
Marxist humanism is a branch of Marxism that primarily focuses on [[unpublished|Marx's earlier writings]], especially the ''[[Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844]]'' in which Marx develops his [[Marx's theory of alienation|theory of alienation]], as opposed to his later works, which are considered to be concerned more with his structural conception of [[capitalist society]]. It was opposed by [[Louis Althusser]]'s "[[antihumanism]]", who qualified it as a [[Marxist revisionism|revisionist]] movement.
Marxist humanists contend that ‘Marxism’ developed lopsidedly because Marx’s early works were unknown until after the orthodox ideas were in vogue{{spaced ndash}}the Manuscripts of 1844 were published only in 1932{{spaced ndash}}and it is necessary to understand Marx’s philosophical foundations to understand his latter works properly.
===Marxism-De Leonism===
Marxism-De Leonism, is a form of syndicalist Marxism developed by [[Daniel De Leon]]. De Leon was an early leader of the first US socialist political party, the Socialist Labor Party. This party exists to the present day. [[De Leonism]] lies outside the Leninist tradition of communism. The highly decentralized and democratic nature of the proposed De Leonist government is in contrast to the democratic centralism of Marxism-Leninism and what they see as the dictatorial nature of the Soviet Union. The success of the De Leonist plan depends on achieving majority support among the people both in the workplaces and at the polls, in contrast to the Leninist notion that a small vanguard party should lead the working class to carry out the revolution. Daniel De Leon and other De Leonist writers have issued frequent polemics against 'democratic socialist' movements, especially the Socialist Party of America, and consider them to be "reformist" or "bourgeois socialist". De Leonists have traditionally refrained from any activity or alliances viewed by them as trying to reform capitalism, though the Socialist Labor Party in De Leon's time was active during strikes and such, such as social justice movements.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}
===Marxist feminism===
{{Main|Marxist feminism}}
Marxist feminism is a sub-type of [[feminism|feminist]] theory which focuses on the dismantling of capitalism as a way to liberate women. Marxist feminism states that private property, which gives rise to economic inequality, dependence, political confusion and ultimately unhealthy social relations between men and women, is the root of women's oppression. According to [[Marxist theory]], in capitalist societies the individual is shaped by class relations; that is, people's capacities, needs and interests are seen to be determined by the mode of production that characterises the society they inhabit. Marxist feminists see gender inequality as determined ultimately by the capitalist mode of production. Gender oppression is class oppression and women's subordination is seen as a form of class oppression which is maintained (like [[racism]]) because it serves the interests of capital and the [[ruling class]]. Marxist feminists have extended traditional [[Marxist analysis]] by looking at domestic labour as well as wage work in order to support their position.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}
==Etymology==
The term "Marxism" was popularized by [[Karl Kautsky]] who considered himself an "orthodox" Marxist during the dispute between the orthodox and revisionist followers of Marx.<ref name="Georges Haupt 2010. pp. 18–19">Georges Haupt, Peter Fawcett, Eric Hobsbawm. ''Aspects of International Socialism, 1871–1914: Essays by Georges Haupt''. Paperback Edition. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. pp. 18–19.</ref> Kautsky's revisionist rival [[Eduard Bernstein]] also later adopted use of the term.<ref name="Georges Haupt 2010. pp. 18–19"/> Engels did not support the use of the term "Marxism" to describe either Marx's or his views.<ref name="Georges Haupt 2010. Pp. 12">Georges Haupt, Peter Fawcett, Eric Hobsbawm. ''Aspects of International Socialism, 1871–1914: Essays by Georges Haupt''. Paperback Edition. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Pp. 12.</ref> Engels claimed that the term was being abusively used as a rhetorical qualifier by those attempting to cast themselves as "real" followers of Marx while casting others in different terms, such as "Lassallians".<ref name="Georges Haupt 2010. Pp. 12"/> In 1882, Engels claimed that Marx had criticized self-proclaimed "Marxist" [[Paul Lafargue]], by saying that if Lafargue's views were considered "Marxist", then "One thing is certain and that is that I am not a Marxist".<ref name="Georges Haupt 2010. Pp. 12"/>
==History==
===Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels===
{{Main|Karl Marx|Friedrich Engels}}
'''Karl Heinrich Marx''' (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German [[philosopher]], [[political economy|political economist]], and [[socialism|socialist]] [[revolutionary]], who addressed the matters of [[Marx's theory of alienation|alienation]] and [[exploitation]] of the working class, the [[capitalist mode of production]], and [[historical materialism]]. He is famous for analysing history in terms of [[class struggle]], summarised in the initial line introducing the ''[[Communist Manifesto]]'' (1848): "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". His ideas were influential in his time, and it was greatly expanded by the successful [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] [[October Revolution]] of 1917 in [[Russian Empire|Imperial Russia]].
'''Friedrich Engels''' (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German
[[Political philosophy|political philosopher]] and Karl Marx’s co-developer of [[Communism|communist]] theory. Marx and Engels met in September 1844; discovering that they shared like views of [[philosophy]] and [[socialism]], they collaborated and wrote works such as ''Die heilige Familie'' (''[[The Holy Family (book)|The Holy Family]]''). After the French deported Marx from France in January 1845, Engels and Marx moved to Belgium, which then permitted greater [[freedom of expression]] than other European countries; later, in January 1846, they returned to Brussels to establish the Communist Correspondence Committee.
In 1847, they began writing ''The Communist Manifesto'' (1848), based upon Engels’ ''The Principles of Communism''; six weeks later, they published the 12,000-word pamphlet in February 1848. In March, Belgium expelled them, and they moved to [[Cologne]], where they published the ''[[Neue Rheinische Zeitung]]'', a politically [[Political radicalism|radical]] newspaper. Again, by 1849, they had to leave Cologne for London. The Prussian authorities pressured the British government to expel Marx and Engels, but Prime Minister [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord John Russell]] refused.
After Karl Marx’s death in 1883, Friedrich Engels became the [[editor in chief|editor]] and [[translation|translator]] of Marx's writings. With his ''[[Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State]]'' (1884) – analysing [[Monogamy|monogamous]] [[marriage]] as guaranteeing male social domination of women, a concept analogous, in communist theory, to the capitalist class’s economic domination of the working class – Engels made [[intellectual]]ly significant contributions to [[feminist theory]] and [[Marxist feminism]].
===Late 20th century===
====Political Marxism====
In 1959, the [[Cuban Revolution]] led to the victory of anti-imperialist [[Fidel Castro]] (1926–) and his [[July 26 Movement]]. Although the revolution had not been explicitly socialist, upon victory Castro ascended to the position of Prime Minister and eventually adopted the Leninist model of socialist development, forging an alliance with the Soviet Union.<ref>See [[#Col03|Coltman 2003]] and [[#Bou86|Bourne 1986]].</ref> One of the leaders of the revolution, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary [[Che Guevara]] (1928–1967), subsequently went on to aid revolutionary socialist movements in [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo-Kinshasa]] and Bolivia, eventually being killed by the Bolivian government, possibly on the orders of the CIA, though the CIA agent sent to search for Guevara, Felix Rodriguez expressed a desire to keep him alive as a possible bargaining tool with the Cuban government; he would posthumously go on to become an internationally recognised icon.
In the People's Republic of China, the Maoist government undertook the [[Cultural Revolution]] from 1966 through to 1976 in order to purge capitalist elements from Chinese society and entrench socialism. However, upon Mao's death, his rivals seized political power and under the Premiership of [[Deng Xiaoping]] (1978–1992), many of Mao's Cultural Revolution era policies were revised or abandoned and much of the state sector privatised.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the collapse of most of those socialist states that had professed a Marxist-Leninist ideology. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the emergence of the [[New Right]] and [[neoliberalism|neoliberal capitalism]] as the dominant ideological trends in western politics – championed by U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]] and U.K. Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] – led the west to take a more aggressive stand against the Soviet Union and its Leninist allies. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, the reformist [[Mikhael Gorbachev]] (1931–) became Premier in 1988, and began to move away from Leninist-based models of development towards [[social democracy]]. Ultimately, Gorbachev's reforms, coupled with rising levels of popular ethnic nationalism in the Soviet Union, led to the state's dissolution in 1991 into a series of constituent nations, all of which abandoned Marxist-Leninist models for socialism, with most converting to capitalist economies.
===21st century===
====Political Marxism====
At the turn of the 21st century, China, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam remained the only officially Marxist-Leninist states remaining, although a Maoist government led by [[Prachanda]] (1954–) was elected into power in Nepal in 2008 following a long guerrilla struggle. The early 21st century also saw the election of socialist and anti-imperialist governments in several Latin American nations, in what has come to be known as the "[[Pink tide]]". Dominated by the Venezuelan government of [[Hugo Chávez]], this trend also saw the election of [[Evo Morales]] in Bolivia, [[Rafael Correa]] in Ecuador and [[Daniel Ortega]] in Nicaragua; forging political and economic alliances through international organisations like the [[Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas]], these socialist governments allied themselves with Marxist-Leninist Cuba, and although none of them espoused a Leninist path directly, most admitted to being significantly influenced by Marxist theory. For Italian Marxist Gianni Vattimo in his 2011 book ''[[Hermeneutic Communism]]'' "this new weak communism differs substantially from its previous Soviet (and current Chinese) realization, because the South American countries follow democratic electoral procedures and also manage to decentralize the state bureaucratic system through the [[Bolivarian Missions|misiones (social missions for community projects)]]. In sum, if weakened communism is felt as a specter in the West, it is not only because of media distortions but also for the alternative it represents through the same democratic procedures that the West constantly professes to cherish but is hesitant to apply"<ref>Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala. ''Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx'' Columbia University Press. 2011. p. 122</ref>
==Criticisms==
{{main|Criticisms of Marxism}}
Criticisms of Marxism have come from various political ideologies. [[Democratic socialism|Democratic socialists]] and [[social democrats]] reject the idea that socialism can be accomplished only through [[class conflict]] and a [[proletarian revolution]]. Many [[anarchism|anarchists]] reject the need for a [[dictatorship of the proletariat|transitory state phase]]. Other critiques come from an economic standpoint. Economists such as [[Friedrich Hayek]] have criticized Marxism for allocating resources inefficiently.
Some contemporary supporters of Marxism argue that many aspects of Marxist thought are viable, but that the corpus is incomplete or outdated in regards to certain aspects of economic, political or [[social theory]]. They may therefore combine some Marxist concepts with the ideas of other theorists such as [[Max Weber]]: the [[Frankfurt school]] is one example.
V. K. Dmitriev, writing in 1898,<ref>V. K. Dmitriev, 1974 (1898), ''Economic Essays on Value, Competition and Utility''. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press</ref> [[Ladislaus Bortkiewicz|Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz]], writing in 1906–07,<ref>Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz, 1952 (1906–1907), "Value and Price in the Marxian System", ''International Economic Papers'' 2, 5–60; Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz, 1984 (1907), "On the Correction of Marx’s Fundamental Theoretical Construction in the Third Volume of ''Capital''". In Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk 1984 (1896), ''Karl Marx and the Close of his System'', Philadelphia: Orion Editions.</ref> and subsequent critics have alleged that Marx's [[value theory]] and law of the [[tendency of the rate of profit to fall]] are internally inconsistent. In other words, the critics allege that Marx drew conclusions that actually do not follow from his theoretical premises. Once these alleged errors are corrected, his conclusion that aggregate price and profit are determined by, and equal to, aggregate value and surplus value no longer holds true. This result calls into question his theory that the exploitation of workers is the sole source of profit.<ref>M. C. Howard and J. E. King. (1992) A History of Marxian Economics: Volume II, 1929–1990, chapter 12, sect. III. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.</ref>
Both Marxism and socialism have received considerable critical analysis from multiple generations of [[Austrian economics|Austrian economists]] in terms of scientific methodology, economic theory, and political implications.<ref>[http://mises.org/daily/3910/What-We-Can-Know-About-the-World] What We Can Know About The World. Hans F. Sennholz.</ref><ref>[http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Omnipotent_Government.html?id=QoOMaqfdpT4C] Omnipotent Government. Ludwig Von Mises</ref> During the [[Marginal utility#The Marginal Revolution|marginal revolution]], subjective value theory was rediscovered by [[Carl Menger]], a development which undermined the British cost theories of value fundamentally. The restoration of subjectivism and [[praxeology|praxeological]] methodology previously employed by classical economic scientists including [[Richard Cantillon]], [[Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot]], [[Jean-Baptiste Say]], and [[Frédéric Bastiat]] led Menger to criticise [[historicist]] methodology in general. Second-generation Austrian economist [[Eugen Böhm von Bawerk]] employed praxeological and subjectivist methodology attacking the law of value fundamentally. Non-Marxist economists have regarded his criticism as definitive with [[Gottfried Haberler]] arguing that Böhm-Bawerk's critique of Marx's economics was so thorough and devastating that as of the 1960s no Marxian scholar had conclusively refuted it.<ref>[[Gottfried Haberler]] in [[Milorad M. Drachkovitch]] (ed.), ''Marxist Ideology in the Contemporary World– Its Appeals and Paradoxes'' (New York: Praeger, 1966), p. 124</ref> Third-generation Austrian [[Ludwig Von Mises]] sparked the [[economic calculation problem|economic calculation debate]] by identifying that without price signals in capital goods all other aspects of the market economy are irrational. This led him to declare "...that rational economic activity is impossible in a socialist [[commonwealth]]."<ref name="Mises">{{cite book
|title= Economic calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth
|accessdate=2008-09-08
|last= Von Mises
|first= Ludwig
|authorlink= Ludwig von Mises
|year= 1990
|format= pdf
|publisher= [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]]
|url= http://mises.org/pdf/econcalc.pdf
}}</ref> Mises then elaborated on every form of socialism more completely in his 1922 book ''Socialism, an Economic and Sociological Analysis''. Contemporary Austrian critics include [[Murray Rothbard]], [[David Gordon (philosopher)|David Gordon]] [[Yuri Maltsev]], [[Gary North (economist)|Gary North]], and [[Joseph Salerno]].
==See also==
{{organize section|date=June 2013}}
{{Multicol}}
* [[Analytical Marxism]]
* [[Anarchism and Marxism]]
* [[Austromarxism]]
* [[Classical Marxism]]
* [[Commodity (Marxism)]]
* [[Cultural Marxism]]
* [[Democracy in Marxism]]
* [[Freudo-Marxism]]
* [[Instrumental Marxism]]
* [[International Marxist Tendency]]
* [[International Socialist Tendency]]
* [[Karl Marx]]
* [[Karl Marx House]]
* [[Karl Marx in film]]
* [[Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence|''Karl Marx's Theory of History'']]
* [[Legal Marxism]]
* [[Libertarian Marxism]]
* ''[[Living Marxism]]''
* [[Marxian Class Theory]]
* [[Marxian economics]]
* [[Marxism and Freedom: From 1776 Until Today|''Marxism and Freedom'']]
{{Multicol-break}}
* ''[[Marxism and the U.S.A.]]''
* [[Marxism–Leninism]]
* ''[[Marxism Today]]''
* [[Marxist aesthetics]]
* [[Marxist analysis]]
* [[Marxist conception of human nature]]
* [[Marxist criminology]]
* [[Marxist feminism]]
* [[Marxist film theory]]
* [[Marxist geography]]
* [[Marxist historiography]]
* [[Marxist humanism]]
* [[Marxist international relations theory]]
* [[Marxist literary criticism]]
* [[Marxist philosophy]]
* [[Marxist philosophy of nature]]
* [[Marxist sociology]]
* [[Marxist Workers' League (US)]]
* ''[[Marxists Internet Archive]]''
* [[Marx Memorial Library]]
{{Multicol-break}}
* [[Marx’s method]]
* [[Marx's notebooks on the history of technology|Marx's notebooks on technology]]
* [[Marx's theory of alienation]]
* [[Marx's theory of human nature]]
* [[Neo-Marxism]]
* [[Open Marxism]]
* [[Orthodox Marxism]]
* [[Political Marxism]]
* [[Post-Marxism]]
* [[Pre-Marx socialists]]
* [[Reification (Marxism)]]
* ''[[Rethinking Marxism]]''
* [[Revisionism (Marxism)]]
* [[Revolutionary Marxist League]]
* [[Socialism (Marxism)]]
* ''[[Specters of Marx]]''
* [[Structural Marxism]]
* ''[[The Marxism of Che Guevara]]''
* [[Western Marxism]]
* [[Young Marx]]
{{Multicol-end}}
==References==
===Footnotes===
{{reflist|30em}}
===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |title=Fidel: A Biography of Fidel Castro|last={{Smallcaps|Bourne, Peter G.}}|year=1986|publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company|location=New York|ref=Bou86}}
* {{cite book |title=The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx|last={{Smallcaps|[[Alex Callinicos|Callinicos, Alex]]}}|year=2010 [1983]|publisher=Bookmarks|location=Bloomsbury, London|isbn=978-1-905192-68-7|ref=Cal10}}
* {{cite book |title=My Life: A Spoken Autobiography|last={{Smallcaps|Castro, Fidel}}|coauthors={{Smallcaps|Ramonet, Ignacio (interviewer)}}|year=2009|publisher=Scribner|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4165-6233-7|ref=Cas09}}
* {{cite book |title=The Real Fidel Castro|last={{Smallcaps|Coltman, Leycester}}|year=2003|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven and London|isbn=978-0-300-10760-9|ref=Col03}}
* {{cite book |title=Prehistorian: A Biography of V. Gordon Childe|last={{Smallcaps|Green, Sally}}|year=1981|publisher=Moonraker Press|location=Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire|isbn=0-239-00206-7|ref=Gre81}}
* {{cite book |title=Karl Marx: A Brief Biographical Sketch with an Exposition of Marxism|last={{Smallcaps|[[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin, Vladimir]]}}|year=1967 [1913]|publisher=Foreign Languages Press|location=Peking|isbn=|nopp=|ref=Len67}} Available online at here [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/granat/index.htm]
* {{cite book |title=Wage Labour and Capital|last={{Smallcaps|[[Karl Marx|Marx, Karl]]}}|year=1849|publisher=Neue Rheinische Zeitung|location=Germany|isbn=|nopp=|ref=Mar49}} Available online here [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm]
* {{cite book |title=A History of Archaeological Thought ''(Second Edition)''|last={{Smallcaps|[[Bruce Trigger|Trigger, Bruce G.]]}}|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-521-60049-1|nopp=|ref=Tri07}}
{{Refend}}
* {{cite book |author=Avineri, Shlomo|year=1968|title=The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx|publisher=Cambridge University Press|authorlink=Shlomo Avineri}}
* {{cite book |author=Dahrendorf, Ralf|title=Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society|year=1959|authorlink=Ralf Dahrendorf|location=Stanford, CA|publisher=Stanford University Press}}
* [[Jon Elster]], ''An Introduction to Karl Marx''. Cambridge, England, 1986.
* Michael Evans, ''Karl Marx''. London, 1975.
* {{cite book |author=Kołakowski, Leszek|title=Main Currents of Marxism|year=1976|publisher=Oxford University Press|authorlink=Leszek Kołakowski}}
* {{cite book |author=Parkes, Henry Bamford|title=Marxism: An Autopsy|year=1939|location=Boston|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|authorlink=Henry Bamford Parkes}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Prychitko |first1=David L. |authorlink1= David Prychitko |last2= |first2= |authorlink2= |editor= [[David R. Henderson]] (ed.) |encyclopedia=[[Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]] |title=Marxism |url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Marxism.html |year=2008 |edition= 2nd |publisher=[[Library of Economics and Liberty]] |isbn=978-0865976658 |oclc=237794267}}
* [[Cedric Robinson|Robinson, Cedric J.]]: ''Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition'', 1983, Reissue: Univ North Carolina Press, 2000
* [[R. J. Rummel|Rummel, R.J.]] (1977) ''[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE12.HTM Conflict In Perspective]'' Chap. 5 ''[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/CIP.CHAP5.HTM Marxism, Class Conflict, and the Conflict Helix]''
* {{cite book |last=Screpanti|first=E|coauthors=S. Zamagna|year=1993|title=An Outline of the History of Economic Thought}}
* {{cite book |author=McLellan, David|title=Marxism After Marx|year=2007|location=Basingstoke|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|authorlink=David McLellan (academic)}}
==External links==
===General resources===
* [http://www.marxists.org/ Marxists Internet Archive] ([[Marxists Internet Archive|MIA]])
* [http://www.marxmail.org/ Marxmail.org]
* [http://marxmyths.org/ Marx Myths & Legends]
* [http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/ Marxism Page]
* [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/LPSG/Marx.htm London Philosophy Study Guide on Marxism] (offers many suggestions on what to read, depending on the student's familiarity with the subject)
* [http://leninist.biz/en/1980/MP399/index.html Afanasyev : Marxist Philosophy]
* [http://leninist.biz/en/1978/MLP519/index.html Sheptulin : Marxist–Leninist Philosophy(1978)]
* [http://leninist.biz/en/1981/MMP495/index.html Oizerman : The Making of the Marxist Philosophy]
===Introductory articles===
* [http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/schools/marxian.htm History of Economic Thought: Marxian School]
* [http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/schools/neomarx.htm History of Economic Thought: Neo Marxian]
===Marxist websites===
* [http://www.mrzine.org/ MRZine] a project of the Monthly Review Foundation
* [http://wsws.org/ World Socialist Web Site]
* [http://bataillesocialiste.wordpress.com/english-pages/ La Bataille socialiste] information and documents for living Marxism
* [http://www.marxist.com/ In Defence of Marxism] website of the [[International Marxist Tendency]]
* [http://www.isj.org.uk/ International Socialism] a journal of Marxist theory linked to the [[International Socialist Tendency]]
* [http://www.karlmarx.net/ KarlMarx.net] Marxist website of news and analysis.
* [http://www.fifthinternational.org/ League for the Fifth International] Website the League for the Fifth International
* [http://www.rethinkingmarxism.org/ Rethinking Marxism] a journal of economics, society, and culture
* [http://www.socialistproject.ca/ Socialist Project] issues, events, theory, and debate
* [http://www.solidarityeconomy.net/ Solidarity Economy] Marxist theory, analysis, and debate
* [http://www.worldsocialism.org/ World Socialist Movement]
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[[Category:Political philosophy by politician]]
[[Category:Economic ideologies]]
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[[Category:Criticism of religion]]
[[Category:Philosophical movements]]
[[Category:Philosophical traditions]]
[[Category:Theories of history]]
[[Category:Karl Marx]]
[[Category:Sociological paradigms]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Socialism]]
[[Category:Social theories]]
[[Category:Materialism]]
[[Category:Naturalism (philosophy)]]
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