The Sham of Democracy and the Reality of Dictatorship
From the Writings of Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Central Committee, RCP,USA
Revolutionary Worker #1064, July 30, 2000
"It is conventional wisdom in countries like the U.S. that democracy and dictatorship are the complete opposite of each other: where there is democracy there is not a dictatorship and where there is a dictatorship there is of course no democracy. But in fact democracy is a form of dictatorship. In any state where democracy is the form of political rule, democracy is really only practiced among the ranks of the ruling class, while dictatorship is exercised over the oppressed class (or classes). In the present-day self-proclaimed "democratic countries" this is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat (and other oppressed strata and groups)."
"Many will say: how can the political system in a democratic country like the U.S. "serve to maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat" when everyone has the right to choose political leaders by participating in elections? The answer to this is that elections in such a society, and the "democratic process" as a whole, are a sham-and more than a sham-a cover for and indeed a vehicle through which domination over the exploited and oppressed is carried out by the exploiting, oppressing, ruling class. To state it in a single sentence, elections: are controlled by the bourgeoisie; are not the means through which basic decisions are made in any case; and are really for the primary purpose of legitimizing the system and the policies and actions of the ruling class, giving them the mantle of a "popular mandate," and of channeling, confining, and controlling the political activity of the masses of people."
"The apparatus of the state-the armed forces in particular but also the courts and the legal system, the bureaucracy, and so forth-are in the hands of a class, the class that is dominant in the economic relations of society. This state is not and cannot be neutral. Nor is it the instrument of particular private interests or specific powerful individuals (though of course there are individual leaders of any class at any given time). Rather, this state apparatus is an instrument of class rule, a machine for the oppression of the economically exploited and dominated classes: it enforces the dictatorship of the ruling class over the exploited and oppressed classes, and will be used by the ruling class to suppress any real resistance to its dictates, any serious challenge to its interests and to the established order which reflects and serves them, regardless of which particular individuals are in office."
"This very electoral process itself tends to cover over the basic class relations-and class antagonisms-in society, and serves to give formal, institutionalized expression to the political participation of atomized individuals in the perpetuation of the status quo. This process not only reduces people to isolated individuals but at the same time reduces them to a passive position politically and defines the essence of politics as such atomized passivity-as each person, individually, in isolation from everyone else, giving his/her approval to this or to that option, all of which options have been formulated and presented by an active power standing above these atomized masses of 'citizens.'"
"It is not infrequently said, as a major selling point of this electoral process (in the USA specifically), that, regardless of everything else-and in particular, regardless of admittedly immense differences in wealth and economic power and social status-the ballot box is the great equalizer . . . that once you step into that polling booth, the vote of a common wage-worker and the vote of a Rockefeller count for the same thing. And, fundamentally, this is true-neither of these votes counts for a damn thing; Rockefeller (or the class of Rockefellers) doesn't need to vote to exercise political power, and the common wage-workers will never exercise political power under this system no matter how many votes they cast or for what. There never has been and never will be "a revolution through the ballot box," not only because the powers-that-be would forcibly suppress any such attempt, but also-and this touches on a very important function of elections in bourgeois society-because the very acceptance of the electoral process as the quintessential political act reinforces acceptance of the established order and works against any radical rupture with, to say nothing of the actual overturning of, that order."
"The alleged freedom of expression in the "democratic countries" is a sham-and for two basic reasons-because the ruling class has a monopoly on the means of molding public opinion and because its monopoly of armed force puts it in a position to suppress, as violently as necessary, any expression of ideas, as well as any action, that poses a serious challenge to the established order."
In today's world, with its oppressing and lopsided social and international relations, starving children in Africa-and for that matter, the great majority of humanity, which still lives only a few short steps from starvation, at most-do not have the right to make plans for the distribution of the world's productive forces and resources in a way that could eliminate such starvation and misery and make possible a whole new life. Nor, for that matter, do the people in the "advanced" imperialist countries have this right (or even the right to take practical, meaningful steps to forestall mass starvation in the very short run) even if they wish to do so. Such rights, and whole new vistas of freedom, can become a reality only through the world-overturning revolution that in its ultimate achievement will sweep away the bourgeois notions of what constitutes freedom and justice.
These quotes are from Bullets: From the Writings, Speeches and Interviews of Bob Avakain and Democracy: Can't We Do Better Than That? Both books are available from Liberation Distributors and at Revolution Bookstores.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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