The Marxist conception of the state : : a contribution to the differentiation of the sociological and the juristic method / / by Max Adler ; edited and with a preface by Mark E. Blum.

• Superior document: Historical Materialism Book Series; volume192
• VerfasserIn: Adler, Max, 1873-1937.
• TeilnehmendeR: Blum, Mark E.,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden Boston : : BRILL,, 2019.
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English; German
• Series: Historical Materialism Book Series; volume192.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (257 pages).

This translation of Max Adler’s Die Staatsauffassung des Marxismus enables English readers to know a significant perspective on Marx’s theory of the state, which was central to the interwar period in which he was writing (1922). In an extended dialogue with democratic jurist Hans Kelsen, Adler shows that the so-called necessity of law as the neutral arbiter of a democratic society has been heretofore a flawed imposition of the authoritative understandings of the ruling classes. Adler’s brings to his argument the Kantian concept of “sociation”, where every human judgment perforce sets its determinations within its view of the social whole, demonstrating that an accurate comprehension of interdependent equality that realizes an objective “sociation” can only occur in a “classless” society.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Preface -- Foreword -- A Scholarly Motto That Contributes to the Present Marxist Critique -- Politics and Sociology -- The Sociological Unity of State and Society -- The Development of the Concept of Society -- The Further Development of the Concept of Society by Marx -- The Formal Logic of Law in Kelsen -- The Essential in Marx’s Concept of the State -- What Is a Class? -- Class and Party -- Political and Social Democracy -- Democracy and Freedom -- Revolution or Evolution? -- Democracy and Its Organisation -- Dictatorship -- Government and Administration -- Excursus on Anarchism -- Apparent Anarchism in Marxism -- The ‘Marvel’ of the Stateless Organisation -- Utopianism in Marx and Engels -- Why We Are Not Understood! -- Afterword -- Back Matter -- Bibliography -- Index.