Proletarian Democracy

[Garret]

What is Proletarian Democracy? How would it differ from Bourgeois Democracy? And how do the different tendencies want it to be applied?

[jinx92]

Proletarian democracy is socialism, economic and political democracy, while bourgeois democracy isn't really democratic at all.

[Queercommie Girl]

Bourgeois democracy might have political democracy at best, but certainly not economic democracy, and we all know that economic base determines superstructure.

[No Ha Muerto]

Bourgeois democracy might have political democracy at best, but certainly not economic democracy, and we all know that economic base determines superstructure.

Hrm, do bear in mind that the superstructure is also capable of a limited amount of autonomous development, as Friedrich Engels said in a letter to Marc Bloch (I'm reading Feudal Society at the moment): the economic structure is only the determinant in the last instance.

[Garret]

How would it work though? Through worker's councils? I've always found this term a bit vague and difficult to explain to people.

[Zanthorus]

What is Proletarian Democracy? How would it differ from Bourgeois Democracy?

The first person I think who ever used the term 'proletarian democracy' was Lenin in The State and Revolution. Essentially this usage is based on the idea taken from classical Marxism that even a Democratic Republic with universal and direct suffrage which officially recognises no difference between citizens on the basis of propery is a machine for the perpetuation of the domination of wage-labour by capital. Despite the fact that political power is nominally in the hands of the majority, society is still divided into various classes and as such political power will fall to the class which has the upperhand at any particular moment in the struggle. "Universal suffrage did not possess the magic power which republicans of the old school had ascribed to it. They saw in the whole of France, at least in the majority of Frenchmen, citoyens with the same interests, the same understanding, etc. This was their cult of the people. Instead of their imaginary people, the elections brought the real people to the light of day; that is, representatives of the different classes into which it falls." (Marx, The Class Struggles in France 1848-50)

Thus the Democratic Republic is an instrument for the class rule of the bourgeoisie and remains so until the workers' organise themselves into an independent political party in opposition to all bourgeois parties. This party cannot ascend to power on the basis of using the existing state machine to transform society however, but on the basis of organisations like the governing body of the Paris Commune or the Soviets of 1905 and 1917 in which all delegates were made recallable. And as such when the proletariat, organised as a party, does take political power, democracy is used in it's own interests, rather than those of the ruling-class. "Instead of deciding once in three or six years which member of the ruling class was to misrepresent the people in Parliament, universal suffrage was to serve the people, constituted in Communes" (Marx, The Civil War in France).

[syndicat]

Even before the Russian revolution there were people (such as DeLeon) who advocated for a different basis of democracy for the empowerment of workers. A key feature of this was the syndicalist concept of delegates representing people by the role they play in production, that is, by delegates elected to some congress or delegate body from "industrial constituencies."

A second aspect of proletarian democracy is that it is based on assemblies or direct, face to face democracy in the workplaces. This differs from election of representatives under socalled "representative democracy" which is really just an elective oligarchy as there is no way for us to control them once elected.

[graymouser]

The Marxist theory of the state says that while there is class society, the state - however democratic - will be used by one class for the oppression of others. This is why Lenin pointed out that the ancient Greek republics were only democratic for the slave-owners. It is the same with bourgeois democracy, despite the appearance of democratic republics these are in fact only democratic for the capitalists. The whole society is dedicated to the rule of the capitalist class.

Workers' democracy is based not on the form of the republic, which allows the bourgeoisie to dominate by controlling representative elections, but on the soviet, which is based in the workplace and allows workers to directly participate in the running of society. Each workplace forms one part of a democratic workers' network; this whole network, based on the complete participation of everyone involved in production (and the peripheral aspects of production), can move toward democratically planning production and distribute resources and goods for human need rather than based on the requirements for capital of growth. This would lead toward the total abolition of classes and the establishment of a truly just and fair society.

[Hit The North]

Hrm, do bear in mind that the superstructure is also capable of a limited amount of autonomous development, as Friedrich Engels said in a letter to Marc Bloch (I'm reading Feudal Society at the moment): the economic structure is only the determinant in the last instance.
Yes, but without economic democracy, political democracy is useless to meet the needs of the proletariat. So at its root, proletarian democracy must be based in its control over the means of production and exchange.

[Red_Struggle]

Basically, proletarian democracy implies the use of workers' councils (both local, regional, and national) through which the people can air their views. Of course, they can always use their media outlets, like TV programming and newspapers to invoke discussions on issues that are of great social importance. Media run by conscious elements of the working class can have very positive and progressive implications, while preventing reactionary propaganda at the same time.

As has been pointed out above, proletarian democracy also implies economic democracy, with the workers controlling and planning their own production. This can be applied to centrally planned economies, as well, with proposals being sent to the centre, as well as local or regional planning committees and distribution centers.

[Victus Mortuum]

All of the vast array of participatory democratic machinery that has been devised by democracy minded individuals and applying it in both political as well as economic arenas:

Sortition
Delegates
Initiative
Referendum
Deliberation
etc.

Fundamentally, though, proletarian democracy means the destruction of the state. You should read Lenin's State and Revolution (though ignore the bad stereotypes of anarchists in it).