Marxist view of politics, society and the state

[robot lenin]

Hi guys, I've chosen to write an undergraduate essay on the 'Marxist view of politics, society and the state.' I basically am in need of some reputable sources or suggestions of useful books/websites to read as references, mainly centered on politics and society, since I already know enough about the state.

I've already read the Communist Manifesto and a few biographies of Marx, I just wondered if anyone could offer any new ideas. Thanks a lot.

[Holden Caulfield]

alot of Trotsky there are masses of his works about, and i always liked Tony Cliffe,
obviously the work of most other leading leftist figures,

and for counter balances M. Bakunin who in the times of the 1st internation outlined negative features of marxism that to be honest came true,

just a few off the top of my head (with out me having to go see what i have, lol im lazy)

[Hit The North]

You should check out Nicos Poulantzas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicos_Poulantzas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicos_Poulantzas) and the debates he had with Ralph Miliband http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Miliband here: http://science.jrank.org/pages/11326/State-Instrumentalism-Structuralism.html

For a more orthodox marxist critique of Populantzas, check out this: http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=294

[robot lenin]

Thanks a lot for your help, I'm sure it'll be very useful.

[gilhyle]

Citizen Zero's links here are excellant. The IS article brings out an important point about Poulantzas - namely how similar his ideas were to those ofKautsky. But he does not see the significance of that. He overstates Poulantzas' reformism. To my mind Poulantzas is better seen as a centrist. His programmatic goal is dual power between a parliamentary democracy and workers councils. A very similar concept is to be found in Kautsky's The Social Revolution.

In the footnotes to the IS article Barker criticises Henri Weber (Mandelite) for being unable to criticise Poulantas correctly because the mandelites couldnt see that there was no socialism in the Cuban or Yugoslav states. This criticism is misplaced, to my mind. But that is another days work.

What is striking in Barkers IS article is the clear counterposition of representative democracy and Workers COuncil's democracy and the claim that they are incompatible and that parliamentary representative democractic institutions must be dismantled for workers council democracy to exist. This point is rarely put so clearly.

[apathy maybe]

I would suggest getting it straight from the horse's mouth as it were. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/ or http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/txtindex.htm
Marxists.org, a good site with not just Marxist writers.

[gilhyle]

The point was to consider how people have understand the Marxist view of politics, the one thing the great Marx is not good at telling you is how other people re-interpret his views.