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Communist Challenge to Classical Liberalism and Laissez-faire

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In the Manifesto of the Communist Party, what communism is is discussed; this writing attempts to enlighten the world about what communism ideals are. The communist party is pro-proletariat and wants what is best, in their eyes, for the working class people. “The essential condition for the existence and rule of the bourgeois class is the accumulation of wealth in private hands, the formation of capital; the essential condition of capital is wage-labour” (Marx, p. 135). According to Marx and Engels, the reason the bourgeois class exists is because of the labor from the proletariat class; without the capital produced from the proletariat the bourgeois class would not be as successful as they are. “The Communists are no separate party …show more content…

In The Working Man’s Programme by Ferdinand Lassalle, the rights of the workingman are discussed. “It is impossible in the long run with universal and direct suffrage that the elected body should be any other than the exact and true likeness of the people which [have] elected it” (Lassalle, p. 163). According to Lassalle, this would be the ideal government in society but this is not usually the case realistically. Usually, the government is controlled by the rich elites and the proletariat is left to fend for itself. This was the case before the French Revolution with the estate system; the first and second estates, the rich nobles, had the majority of the influence compared to the third estate, the proletariat, who did not receive nearly as much influence. Lassalle argues that this form of government is not how the government should work and that idea is similar to the Communist viewpoint (Lassalle). The other viewpoint that is present in relation to government attempts to justify why the higher classes have a low morality. “It is [the] opposition of the personal interest of the higher classes to the development of the nation which evokes the great and necessary immorality of the higher classes” (Lassalle, p. 165). The higher classes are established and well off so they are not as concerned with the development of the nation as the proletariat is. The proletariat needs to develop the nation

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