NOTES ONBAKUNIN’SSTATEHOOD ANDANARCHY 1005
NOTES ON BAKUNIN’S STATEHOOD
AND ANARCHY
BAKUNIN: “Where there is a state, there is inevitably domination and consequently
there is also slavery; domination without slavery, open or masked, is unthinkable—that
is why we are enemies of the state.
What does it mean to talk of the proletariat ‘raised to the level of the ruling
estate’”?
MARX: It means that the proletariat, instead of fighting in individual instances
against the economically privileged classes, has gained sufficient strength and organiza-
tion to use general means of coercion in its struggle against them; but it can only make
use of such economic means as abolish its own character as wage laborer and hence as
a class; when its victory is complete, its rule too is therefore at an end, since its class
character will have disappeared.
BAKUNIN: “Will perhaps the entire proletariat stand at the head of the government?”
MARX: In a TRADES UNION, for example, does the entire union form its execu-
tive committee? Will all division of labor in the factory come to an end as well as the
various functions arising from it? And with Bakunin’s constitution “from below,” will
everyone be “at the top?” If so, there will be no one “at the bottom.” Will all the
members of the community at the same time administer the common interests of the
“region?” If so, there will be no distinction between community and “region.”
BAKUNIN: “There are about 40 million Germans. Does this mean that all 40 million
will be members of the government?”
MARX: CERTAINLY! For the system starts with the self-government of the
communities.
BAKUNIN: “The entire people will rule, and no one will be ruled.”
MARX: When a person rules himself, he does not do so according to this principle;
for he is only himself and not another.
BAKUNIN: “Then there will be no government, no state, but if there is a state, there
will be both rulers and slaves.”
MARX: That just means when class rule has disappeared there [will] be no state in
the present political sense.
BAKUNIN: “The dilemma in the theory of the Marxists is easily resolved. By
people’s government they...understand the government of the people by means of a
small number of representatives chosen (elected) by the people.”
MARX: Asine! This is democratic twaddle, political claptrap! Elections—a
political form found in the tiniest Russian commune and in the artel. The character of
an election does not depend on this name but on the economic foundation, the
economic interrelations of the voters, and as soon as the functions have ceased to be
political, 1) government functions no longer exist; 2) the distribution of general
functions has become a routine matter which entails no domination; 3) elections lose
their present political character.
BAKUNIN: “The universal suffrage of the whole people”—
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Collected Works,Vol. 24 (New York: International Publishers, copyright
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1989). Used by permission.