State

The state is an institution which represents the organ by which a class maintains its rule and uses force to subjugate a lower class. The state is a product of class struggle and developed to suppress and maintain the exploitation of a lower class. Under capitalism, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is present to ensure the preservation of the socioeconomic system in the form of, for instance, passing laws defending private ownership and repressing working class movements through police and military force.

Under the lower stage of socialism, the proletarian revolution abolishes the capitalist state machinery in all its forms and establishes a democratic state, the dictatorship of the proletariat, to represent its class interests, preserve and advance socialist construction, and suppress bourgeois and counter-revolutionary elements domestically and abroad. After the higher stage of socialism has developed, the state will wither away as the material basis from which it emerged, class antagonisms, no longer exist, with all of the population being integrated into the proletariat and the long-lasting distinctions between strata becoming non-existent.

See also

• Dictatorship of the proletariat
• Dictatorship of the bourgeoisie