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Throughout the Course of this study, I shall try and establish the stark differences between Marxism and Social Democracy and indeed their attitudes towards the Welfare State. ... Marxism however was a much more volatile form of socialism than Social Democracy, to such an extent that the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Communist period in Russian history was seen by the likes of Lenin as fulfilling the Marxist prophecy. In Contrast, while many Social Democrats reputations had suffered as a result of Communism, today we know that Social Democratic Parties are Parliamentary parties who work within Capitalism and fight for concessions to help the less well off in society. We could not for example begin to make comparisons between Tony Blair’s current Labour Government in the UK and Bolshevik’s who controlled the USSR. Over the next Section I will discuss the main theoretical principles of Marxism in relation to the Welfare state, subsequently there will be an examination of the main principles of Social Democracy and Finally I will provide a conclusion. ... Perhaps this is more due to the fact that any major change in the Marxist theory would lend commentators to view the particular Marxist as closer to social democracy than Marxism. However before we can get into a debate about who is more or less Marxist, we must primarily understand exactly what it is to be Marxist. ... He feels that eventually the ranks of the proletariat would swell and due to their increasing exploitation at the hands of the bourgeoisie they would stage a revolution and take over the state thus marking the end of the historical evolution or as he calls it the end of the ‘pre-history’. Marx feels that in capitalism, while the state may have a relative degree of autonomy from the dominant class, they rule and make policy for the benefit of this dominant class at the expense of the proletariat. ... As a method to keep the status quo Marx argues that the state have legitimised and monopolised violence in the army and police. To this end the state employ these agents to fight their class battles for them and the proletariat have to fight their own. ... Marxist theory points towards the accumulation of capital which needs market conditions to take place, in this they argue even welfare provisions by the state facilitates this. ... All of this eventually leads to the increasing concentration of capital among a small number of rich capitalists, once again taking us back to the divide between the top (bourgeoisie) and the rest (proletariat) and this brings us back to where we began the idea that the ranks of the proletariat would swell and then revolt. ... It ignores ideas like state pensions; education grants; pregnancy relief and medical allowance; indeed it ignores unemployment benefit. ... Multinational capitalist companies are not the demons, which Marx suggests in fact many have social programmes, which they run to help underprivileged people in areas where they operate. ...
There was a revolt based on Marxist principles, which took over in Russia under Lenin. ... Throughout Western Europe the idea of the Welfare State caught fire, we have the Nordic model, the Anglo-Saxon model etc. ... I will be discussing this phenomenon of Social Democracy in the next section.
Approximate Word count = 2709
Approximate Pages = 10.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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