Socialist democracy

Socialist democracy is a term of Marxism- Leninism, which refers to a form of government in which the working class under the political power under the leadership of their party in alliance with the other toiling classes and layers.

Importance

The socialist countries are often described their society as a socialist democracy. The term democracy was on the grounds that under socialism the representatives of the majority of the people, that is the mass of the working class, peasants and working people the power exercised ( see also dictatorship of the proletariat ), and the bourgeoisie or the capitalists and their representatives the same, and not - as before the change from socialism - had more rights than the working class.

The working class should according to the teachings and claims of Marxism have all the state power, as it is the only way to get a real popular rule, which should be economically achieved inter alia through nationalization of all means of production such as factories, fields, forests, mineral resources. Furthermore, the interests of the bourgeoisie had to subordinate the interests of that majority of the people, the exploitation of workers, peasants and workers by the bourgeoisie should be abolished.

The socialist democracy, as was told by their representatives, is in contrast to the " capitalist democracy," the "true democracy." Bourgeois ( pluralistic ) Democracy, however, is only an " illusion of bourgeois ideology." At the same time, as in socialism ruled the majority of the working people of the minority of the still existing bourgeoisie, this fact has been characterized in the socialist countries with the term dictatorship of the proletariat.

Within the desired Communism, intended as a classless society in which, unlike in socialism there are no economic classes more, the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat would lose its validity, because socialism was only temporary, imperfect transition from capitalism / fascism defined to communism.

Conceptual history

Probably the first time the term was used in the 1918 program of the Communist Party in writing: " Socialist democracy and dictatorship of the proletariat are two essential components of the proletarian state. One can not be realized without the other. "

Practice in the German Democratic Republic

In practice, the German Democratic Republic was manifested socialist democracy as the rule of the SED, which intervened in all spheres of life. The population came to the role to implement the decisions of the party leadership.