Bourgeois democracy
Bourgeois democracy[a] is the dominate form of rule under capitalism characterized by indirect democracy, periodic elections, political parties, and a state monopoly on the form of political struggle, with special repressive organs for maintaining this monopoly. This form of government developed in the 18th century in the United States, Great Britain and France following bourgeois revolutions but has gone on to predominate globally since the end of the Cold War. Bourgeois democracies are fundamentally plutocratic in their inclusiveness; only being truly empowering for the bourgeoisie while dictatorial to the working class.[1]
Bourgeois democracies are designed to be highly conservative and minoritarian, tending to limit radical change through high barriers of entry, separated branches of government, and infrequent checks on the mandate of political representatives. Many Western regimes are currently operate under a neoliberal system.
The questions of how to supersede bourgeois democracy, when to supersede it, and what should replace it are a major topic of discussion among Marxists. The RSFSR and later the USSR, the first successful dictatorship of the proletariat, resolved these questions with Soviet democracy, a form of council democracy. Disagreements concerning the Soviet political system form the basis for modern sectarian disagreement on the left to the present day.
References
- Liberalism, the framework behind most bourgeois democracies
Explanatory notes
- ↑ Also known as liberal democracy, representative democracy, Western democracy, etc.