A Study On The Democratic Thought Of Marx

Democracy, a value goal, has got a universal meaning in modern society. Under the guidance of Marxism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory, China's construction of socialist democracy has developed greatly. Marx is the progenitor of Marxism. By analyzing his democratic thought and its evolution, this dissertation wants to reveal its nature and characteristics. Meanwhile, it also wants to deepen our understanding on democracy and shows us the modern value of Marx's democratic thought.This dissertation first defines the concept of democracy. Then, it describes and analyzes the evolution of democratic thought. By doing this, we find that the connotation and extension of democracy are changing all the time. It not only can be divided from broad sense and narrow sense but also has universality and particularity as well as the characteristics of instrumental value and purposeful value. In order to know the definition of democracy well, we must make clear its starting point and finishing point by considering its historical background.Besides, Marx's understanding about democracy is influenced by Rousseau's thought on the people's sovereignty, Hegel' theory on the relations between civil society and nation as well as impractical socialist's democratic thought. Marx's democratic thought is also changing and deepening all the time. In his early writings, he combined the achievement of democratic thought with people' liberation and believed that the truly achievement of democratic equaled to the liberation of the people. However, he didn't find the realistic power and way to achieve democracy until he discovered the proletariat's historical role. So he predicated the real democracy in his later years. From this course we can find that the spiritual essence of Marx's democratic thought lies in people's self-government and its basic characteristics is the class nature, the critical nature and the feature of ideal.We can not ignore the modern value of Marx's democratic thought. Theoretically, it lays down the basic spirit of the democratic theory with Chinese characteristic socialism and it is the source and core of CPC's democracy theory. Practically, it establishes the objectives of primary value and the guidance of basic theories.