State System

The fundamental nature of a state, i.e., the class character and class relations of a state, also refers to the place occupied by various social classes within the state, showing which class holds the state power and which class is in rule. The state system embodies the class essence and connotation of a state. Mao Zedong pointed out that the state system is simply a question of the status of the various social classes within the state. Any state embodies the political rule of a certain class, and the political rule of different classes form different state systems.

The state is determined, in the last instance, by the definite mode of social production and the economically ruling class arisen out of it, and other factors. The founders of Marxism revealed that the mode of production, which does not depend on the will of individuals, constitutes the real foundation of the state and is the force that creates state power. When the mode of social production changes, the state system will change sooner or later. Any state is based on a certain economic foundation and is the state of the economically ruling class. The state system determines the type of state, due to different state systems, there are various types of state. There are two basic types of state in history, i.e., states of the dictatorship of exploiting classes and state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The state systems of states based on the same type of relations of production belong to the same type. States of the dictatorship of exploiting classes include the state of the dictatorship of the class of slave-owners, the state of the dictatorship of the landlord class and the state of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Within the same type of state, since the actual contrast of class forces is not entirely the same, there may also be various models of state system. For example, the state system of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie may be a dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie, or a dictatorship of the middle class, or a joint dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the landlord class, etc. The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat are referred to as the dictatorship of the proletariat, people’s democratic dictatorship, the dictatorship of the workers and peasants, etc. The state system also determines the functions of the state. The state of the dictatorship of exploiting classes is an instrument of domination and dictatorship by a small minority of exploiters over the vast majority of the exploited. The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is a state in which the proletariat and the working people are the master in their own house, a dictatorship over a minority.

The state system and the system of government is a relation of dialectical unity. In the relation of the state system and the system of government, the state system is the content, the fundamental, the state system determines the system of government and requires a definite system of government as its form of appearance, corresponding to and serving it. The system of government is, of course, the form, has a reaction upon the state system and affects the fortification and development of the state system. Therefore, the state system and the system of government, the class essence and the organizational form of the political power of a state cannot be confused. However, some bourgeois ideologists spared no effort to avoid the question of the state system and speak only of the system of government, and use all sorts of theories of the system of government to distort the class essence of the state, to glorify states dominated by a minority as states of “popular sovereignty”, or states implementing “democratic politics”, with the purpose of concealing the class dictatorship essence of the capitalist state.

China’s state system is people’s democratic dictatorship, i.e., dictatorship of the proletariat. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China stipulates: The People’s Republic of China is a socialist state governed by a people’s democratic dictatorship that is led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants.