An Attempt at a Marxist Theory of Power

Abstract

The theory of power, or rather the lack of any, turns out to be the weakest point of Marxian social theory. Let us try, then, to outline some main points of the theory of power that would be both an application of the Marxian methodological rules and also a striving to say about the sphere of politics something more than that it is subordinated to economics. It must be very convenient for politicians to consider themselves, and to be considered by the rest of the people, as not having their own interests but being servants of the “economy”. Especially in those societies where the only active economic agents legitimized for making economic decisions are politicians themselves. Actually this is the main reason why Marxism is an official ideology of societies of this kind.