Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie

The class essence of the capitalist state, the rule of the bourgeoisie over the working class and other working people in every respect, economically, politically, and intellectually by virtue of the state machinery.

The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is established on the economic foundation of private property in the means of production, its theoretical basis is the doctrine of “natural rights of man” and “separation of powers” which embody the bourgeois thought of democracy. The historical condition for the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is that the development of the means of production and of exchange in the feudal society has reached a certain stage, and feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. They had to be burst asunder. The feudal relations of production of society were “burst asunder”. Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and political constitution adapted in it, and the economic and political sway of the bourgeois class.

The basic task of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is to overthrow feudal rule and establish and fortify the political rule of the bourgeoisie. After the establishment and fortification of its political power, the bourgeoisie oppressed and exploited the domestic working class and other workers, and held down the resistance of the exploited classes, maintained and developed the capitalist mode of production and the capitalist private property in the means of production, “the present bourgeois property relations are ‘maintained’ by the state power which the bourgeoisie has organized for the protection of its property relations”; the rule of the bourgeoisie over the working people is fortified in every respect, economically, politically, and intellectually, and in order to manage the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie class, as Marx pointed out, the bourgeoisie “has conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” Externally, the bourgeoisie carried out aggression and expansion through political, military, economic, cultural and religious forms, or protected its territory and resources from infringement by other countries. The Communist Manifesto pointed out: “The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle. At first with the aristocracy, later on, with those portions of the bourgeoisie itself, whose interests have become antagonistic to the progress of industry; at all time with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries.” Marx held that the conditions for the realization of bourgeois dictatorships and their political functions were “coup d’etat for its birth certificate, universal suffrage for its sanction, and the sword for its scepter”. That is to say, the bourgeoisie establishes the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by waging class struggle, exercises a kind of formal false “democracy”, that is, a franchise conditional on property, and maintains the rule of the bourgeoisie through its army and police forces, both to prevent the restoration of feudalism and hold down the proletarian revolution. All struggles within the State, the struggle between democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, the struggle for the franchise, etc., etc. are merely the illusory forms in which the real struggles of the different classes are fought out among one another.

Bourgeois dictatorships have become a mature and perfect form of regime after centuries of development. In 1640, the British bourgeoisie and the modern aristocracy staged a bourgeois revolution to overthrow the feudal rule, in 1689, the Bill of Rights was enacted, which became the first state of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie to establish a constitutional monarchy. After the victory of the American War of Independence in 1775, a democratic-republican bourgeois dictatorship state power was established. The French Revolution in 1789 triggered a wave of bourgeois revolutions throughout Europe, and by the middle of the 19th century, bourgeois dictatorships were established in various European countries one after another. The Russian February Revolution in 1917 established the bourgeois provisional government and exercised bourgeois dictatorship. In China, after the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, a bourgeois provisional government was established and a democratic republic was exercised, but the fruits of the revolution were eventually reaped, and due to the particular historical conditions of China, it was difficult for bourgeois dictatorship to be truly realized in China.

The forms of appearance of bourgeois dictatorships are diverse, usually realized in the form democratic republic or constitutional monarchy, and assumes the form of fascist dictatorship under particular conditions. Its main features are the implementation of the parliamentary system, universal suffrage, multi-party system, and the separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. In a democratic republic, taking the United States as an example, the president is the head of state and government and is elected indirectly. The Congress is the highest legislative body, consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and members of the two chambers are directly elected by voters in each state. The federal courts are the highest judicial authority, and all judges are appointed by the President and ratified by the Senate. The relationship between the President and the Congress is one in which they are both independent and reciprocally check upon each other. The President can veto bills proposed by the Congress, but does not have the power to dissolve the Congress. Although the Congress has no power to call for the President to resign, it can impeach the President and has the power to approve senior officials appointed by the President. The constitutional monarchy, taking Britain as an example, is a political system that limits the power of the king with the constitution. The King is formally the head of state, the Prime Minister is the head of the highest administrative organ, formally appointed by the King, actually the leader of the majority party in the Parliament, which is usually a one-party cabinet. The Parliament is the highest legislative body, divided into the House of Lords and the House of Commons, with the main power concentrated in the House of Commons. All policy proposals of the cabinet shall be discussed and passed by the Parliament, and the Parliament can veto any policy it does not agree with, and if the Parliament proposes a motion of no confidence in the Cabinet, the Cabinet will resign altogether. But whether it is constitutional monarchy or democratic republic, presidential system or cabinet system, its essence is that the bourgeoisie holds political power and is the political rule of the bourgeoisie.

Bourgeois dictatorships have paved the way for the development of capitalism. The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie has played a positive role in history in the struggle against feudal dictatorship and feudal privileges, but it has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established a new exploiting class in place of the old one; in fact, it proclaimed the will of the bourgeoisie and aimed at fortifying the rule of the bourgeoisie in its interests, and as capitalism entered imperialism, it was increasingly contradictory to the inevitable trend of social development. States of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie usually conceal the essence of their class dictatorship by using “democracy” and “freedom”. Bourgeois democracy is the so-called “most complete democracy” built upon the private property in the means of production, but it is still a form of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which can only be enjoyed by the bourgeoisie, and the democratic rights of the working people are subject to all kinds of restrictions. As Lenin pointed out, to decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament—this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics. After the World War II, the bourgeois dictatorships have undergone a series of self-regulation and changes, and new characteristics appeared, but the nature of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie has not changed. The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is the last dictatorship of an exploiting class in human history. With the development of history, it will be replaced by a new type of revolutionary political power led by the proletariat.