Why have Marxist’s predicted that the state would wither away? * ‘Withering away of state’ – term coined by Engels, definition: Disappearance of the state as a political instrument of class rule due, due to the disappearance of social classes. * 1st reason: * ‘State’ is part of Superstructure– rooted from Marx’ theory of Historical Materialism (Superstructure vs Infrastructure) – Is part of the superstructure. * Therefore it reflects the class structure of the economic system – In capitalism, the state is the political guardian of the bourgeois society, the political agent of the economic ruling class = the instrument of class rule. * It will use both coercion and economic consensus to protect status quo, regardless of which party is in power. * 2nd Reason * State is Reformist: According to Marx, the most reformist parties (Labour) are most successful in protecting capitalism. (Hailsham Quote: ‘if you do not give the people reform…. revolution’) * Marxists reject the Parliamentary road to socialism - Revolution is true ‘people power’. State advocates to reform and therefore withering away of state expected in order to establish full communism. * Reforms can only alleviate the worst aspects of capitalism – they cannot, by definition, remove the exploitative roots of class conflict which will ultimately bring about the complete overthrow of capitalism. Therefore state loses its reason for existence and in order to establish communism, is irrelevant for the above reasons. * 3rd = Overarching reason * Marxist communism doesn’t demand for total equality but the abolition of class. * In a classless society – there is no need for dominant class hegemony or ideology – hence only under communism will we see ‘end of ideology’ in Marxist sense and therefore no need of state – even the