Karl Marx, the German philosophical father of Socialism and Communism, had complex views on democracy and democratic forms of government. Although starting out as critical of the liberal democratic form of government, his ideas on democracy evolved throughout his writings, reflecting his deep engagement with political and economic issues of his time.
In Marx's early works, particularly in his writings with Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto, he often portrayed democracy critically within the context of bourgeois society and class struggle. He argued that, under a capitalist system, democracy is merely a facade that serves the interests of the ruling class, rather than a tool that would allow for the voice of the common worker to be heard. According to Marx, the executives of the modern state apparatus are nothing but a collective committee that manages the affairs of the bourgeoisie. That is to say, bourgeois democracy is a powerful tool that the capitalist class uses to maintain dominance over the working class and is thus never going to benefit the worker in their liberation. Marx's critique of democracy has its foundation in understanding and analysis of class struggle and the inherent inequalities of capitalist society. He viewed it as a political superstructure that reflects and reinforces the economic state of society. In that sense, Marx saw democracy as insufficient for achieving the true emancipation of the proletariat.
However, Marx's perspective on democracy became more nuanced in his later writings, as can be seen in his analysis of the Paris Commune. In The Civil War in France, Marx commended the Commune and saw it as a form of proletarian democracy, arguing that it represented a departure from bourgeois democracy. He described it as "the political form at last discovered under which to work out the economical emancipation of labour”. For Marx, the Commune exemplified a form of direct democracy where the working class actively participated in the decision-making processes and challenged the centralized power structure of bourgeois democracy. He viewed the Commune as a precursor to the dictatorship of the proletariat, where the working class wielded political power directly rather than through representatives from the capitalist class.
Marx's evolving views on democracy suggest a tension between his critique of bourgeois democracy and his recognition of the potential for democratic forms of governance to serve the interests of the working class. While he remained skeptical of representative democracy as a path towards socialism, he acknowledged the importance of democratic movements and revolutions in challenging capitalist exploitation.
From a Marxist perspective, democracy is not solely defined by formal political institutions but also by the underlying social and economic relations of production that govern them. True democracy, from a Marxist standpoint, can only be achieved through the abolition of the capitalist system and the establishment of a socialist society where the means of production are owned and controlled by the working class collectively, which would afford them the opportunity to genuinely participate in politics without any socioeconomic barriers.
