Reconsideration Of The Controversy Between Kautsky And Lenin 's Proletarian Dictatorship

The dictatorship of the proletariat is the core point of Marxist theory. There arelarge current academic writings about the dictatorship of the proletariat, but quite afew academic writings criticize the dictatorship of the proletariat. Nowadays, civilclass consciousness is desalting,"class" is replaced by "stratum". Talking about the"proletariat" is regarded as inappropriate, and it seems to be out of date. Moreover,talking about "dictatorship" is so terrible that most people are likely to associate thisconcept with "purge" motored by Stalin, or "continuing revolution under thedictatorship of the proletariat" put forwarded by Chairman Mao. These controversialevents in the history of international communist movement have made the term "thedictatorship of the proletariat" left a negative impression in people’s mind. Therefore,it is particularly urgent to clarify the misunderstanding of the dictatorship of theproletariat, and to respond to today’s so-called democratic constitutionalism theory,which is attacking the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is called the people’sdemocratic dictatorship in China. The deep research in the theory of the dictatorshipof the proletariat, contribute to summarize some historical experience and lessonsabout the international communist movement and inject vitality into today’sinternational communist movement; it also benefit to develop the Chinese people’sdemocratic dictatorship to be more perfect, make more Chinese people enjoyextensive democracy, and cohesive forces in order to realize the great Chinese dream.The starting point of this article is the argument about the dictatorship of theproletariat between Kautsky and Lenin in1918. This article aims to clarify the focusof their debate and to reshape the evaluation criteria of argument, then provide thereference for the perfecting socialist democracy in China. Kautsky’s understanding ofsocialist democracy was limited by the form of western bourgeois democracy, so hehas failed to explore new problem in the era and think about specific conditions in thenation. In1918, Kautsky accused the Soviet Union of lacking universal suffrage whenit established the dictatorship of the proletariat regime after the October Revolution.And it went against the core values of socialist democracy, and produced anauthoritarian bureaucracy, which run counter to the goal of socialism. In response to criticism by kautsky, Lenin accused of kautsky’s democratic concept is abstract, whichis a form of bourgeois democracy. Lenin had expounded the theory of the dictatorshipof the proletariat and innovated a new democracy in the practice of socialist inRussian Soviet.Adhering to the dictatorship of the proletariat and class analysis method of theMarxist theory, at the same time, adhering to the law of the unity of opposites ofdialectical materialism and the law of negation of negation, is the basic principles tojudge the debate about the dictatorship of the proletariat between kautsky andLenin.Judging from the theoretical principles and methodology perspective of Marxist,we could summarize that Lenin, rather than Kautsky, is the person who had inheritedand developed Marxist theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat.After some socialism big events, include the collapse of the Soviet union and theupheaval of eastern Europe happened, the international communist movement went toa downward trend, while capitalism accelerated expansion through globalization.Especially, with the coming of the era of economic globalization, the liberal anddemocracy views in the western constitutionalism thoughts has a tremendous impacton the ideology of socialist country. China has its unique position in today’s worldsocialist movement because of its35years of glorious achievements in reform andopening up. Today’s China is tolerance and openness, undergoing the time to conquerbulwark of reform and to across the deep water area of development. There arevarious social stratas seeking their own voice, and all kinds of social ideologicalagitating the country. However, democratic constitutionalism thoughts is one of themost violent thoughts which has made negative impact to the polity of people’sdemocratic dictatorship. Through carefully study the way which Eastern governmentshave adopted to accuse of the people’s democratic dictatorship and then regardlessof unwarranted abuse, it is not difficult to find that the formulas they have used aresimilar to the way Kautsky had used to accused of the dictatorship of the proletariatestablished by Lenin’s leadership.After Lenin died, the approach of the evolution of the dictatorship of theproletariat in Soviet union is as following, from Stalin’s highly centralized toKhrushchev’s over haul of Marxism, and then to the comprehensive reform which wasdominated by Mikhail Gorbachev. The consequence is basic state system, which is thedictatorship of the proletariat,has lost. And then the Soviet socialist system and the communist party of the Soviet union have been destroyed. The collapse of the Sovietunion is a history wake-up call for China. In recent years, a great clamour has arisenaround the speech about the western democratic constitutional in our country. Facingthe wrong ideological trend, Chinese government should not only to adhere to thepeople’s democratic dictatorship, but also innovate the form of the realization of thepeople’s democratic dictatorship.