"federal republic"

[Idealism]

for the second half of the "Criticism of the Draft of the Erfurt Programme" What do Lenin Engels mean when they say "federal republic," what is makes t his "less free" than a "centralized"
http://www.marxists.org/archive/leni...ev/ch04.htm#s4

[SocialismOrBarbarism]

for the second half of the "Criticism of the Draft of the Erfurt Programme" What do Lenin Engels mean when they say "federal republic," what is makes t his "less free" than a "centralized"
http://www.marxists.org/archive/leni...ev/ch04.htm#s4

From here: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm


The democrats will either work directly towards a federated republic, or at least, if they cannot avoid the one and indivisible republic they will attempt to paralyze the central government by granting the municipalities and provinces the greatest possible autonomy and independence. In opposition to this plan the workers must not only strive for one and indivisible German republic, but also, within this republic, for the most decisive centralization of power in the hands of the state authority. They should not let themselves be led astray by empty democratic talk about the freedom of the municipalities, self-government, etc. In a country like Germany, where so many remnants of the Middle Ages are still to be abolished, where so much local and provincial obstinacy has to be broken down, it cannot under any circumstances be tolerated that each village, each town and each province may put up new obstacles in the way of revolutionary activity, which can only be developed with full efficiency from a central point. A renewal of the present situation, in which the Germans have to wage a separate struggle in each town and province for the same degree of progress, can also not be tolerated. Least of all can a so-called free system of local government be allowed to perpetuate a form of property which is more backward than modern private property and which is everywhere and inevitably being transformed into private property; namely communal property, with its consequent disputes between poor and rich communities. Nor can this so-called free system of local government be allowed to perpetuate, side by side with the state civil law, the existence of communal civil law with its sharp practices directed against the workers. As in France in 1793, it is the task of the genuinely revolutionary party in Germany to carry through the strictest centralization.