Political economy came into being as a natural result of the expansion of trade, and with its appearance elementary, unscientific huckstering was replaced by a developed system of licensed fraud, an entire science of enrichment.
Friedrich EngelsRead
People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the illusion of progress in shifting from monarchy to democracy, suggesting that class oppression persists regardless of the form of government.
Friedrich Engels argues that merely abolishing monarchy in favor of a democratic republic does not necessarily equate to genuine progress or freedom; he posits that both systems are mechanisms of oppression. In his view, the state functions primarily to uphold the interests of one class over another, indicating that the change of government does not eliminate systemic inequalities.
Themes
DemocracyOppressionClass StruggleGovernmentSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a political debate on the effectiveness of democracy, one might quote Engels to illustrate that democratic systems can also perpetuate oppression.
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...it was always our view that in order to attain this [proletarian revolution] and the other far more important aims of the future social revolution, the working class must first take possession of the organised political power of the state and by its aid crush the resistance of the capitalist class and organise society anew.
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People have learned by bitter experience that the "European fraternal union of peoples" cannot be achieved by mere phrases and pious wishes, but only by profound revolutions and bloody struggles; they have learned that the question is not that of a fraternal union of all European peoples under a single republican flag, but of an alliance of the revolutionary peoples against the counter-revolutionary peoples, an alliance which comes into being not on paper, but only on the battlefield.
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The slave frees himself when, of all the relations of private property, he abolishes only the relation of slavery and thereby becomes a proletarian; the proletarian can free himself only by abolishing private property in general.
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