FROM SOCIALIST TO COMMUNIST SOCIAL RELATIONS - Towards Social Self-Administration
The communist requirement of “from each according to his ability signifies not only work to the utmost of one’s ability but also active, habitual participation by every citizen in the administration of social affairs. In communist society 281this important assertion of the individual will be a feature of every citizen, for social self-administration will be a reality. The formation of the new, all-sidedly developed individual necessarily presupposes the formation of the ability to administer social affairs. “The Socialist Soviet Republic,” Lenin wrote, “is faced with a task which may be briefly formulated as follows ... six hours of physical work for every adult citizen daily and four hours of work in administering the state.” Of course, the number of hours mentioned here is relative, but the very fact that Lenin placed work in production on the same plane as the administration of the state shows the tremendous importance that he attached to teaching every person to be a civic worker, a citizen and an administrator.
In order to make every citizen a capable administrator there must be the corresponding facilities, of which the principal are the material and technical basis of communism and a high level of labour productivity, which gives people free time for non-production (including administrative) activities. In addition, the level of political consciousness must be considerably enhanced so that people would feel the need to administer, to emerge from the shell of their own personal interests. Lastly, every person must be taught to administer social affairs.
To teach a person to administer social affairs means primarily to raise his cultural level, for administration is creative, intellectual work which requires a knowledge of the intricate mechanism of social relations in society as a whole and in its separate links, and a knowledge of the laws and trends of social development, of the operation of objective laws and potentialities and of the limits within which they can be applied. Before one can administer one must know production, the rudiments of science and technology, spiritual culture and people themselves, as well as their relationship to each other in different spheres of social life. In short, in order to administer, one must know the object of administration and have a thorough knowledge of the methods and means of administration. The best way to learn to administer is through practical participation in administration. The vanguard of the oppressed classes, Lenin wrote, “must educate every member of the working 282population for independent participation in the administration of the state not theoretically but practically".
The working people learn the art of administration during the building of communism. On the one hand, the building of communism cannot proceed without drawing the masses into administration and, on the other, the learning of the methods of administration facilitate the success of communist construction.
A necessary condition for the participation of more and more people in the administration of society and the acquiring by them of the art of administration is that socialist democracy must be extended. During the period of communist construction, the development of the socialist state pursues the line of further extending democracy and improving the work of all links of the state machine. In this connection, the Programme of the C.P.S.U. declares: “ Allround extension and perfection of socialist democracy, active participation of all citizens in the administration of the state, in the management of economic and cultural development, improvement of the government apparatus, and increased control over its activity by the people constitute the main direction in which socialist statehood develops in the period of the building of communism."
Extension of Socialist Democracy
The building of communist society is characterised by the further development and extension of Soviet democracy. It witnesses the further development of democratic centralism, which ensures the correct combination of central leadership with the utmost promotion of local initiative and an extension of the rights of the Union republics, of local authorities and individual enterprises. Legislation in law, administrative and territorial matters and a number of other economic, political and cultural spheres has been turned over to the jurisdiction of the Union republics.
The extension of democracy is strikingly manifested in the growing role of the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies in the life of society. It is characteristic that by their nature the Soviets have been and remain not only government but also public institutions, and with the development of socialism more and more stress is laid on their social side. “The Soviets,” the Programme of the C.P.S.U. notes, “which combine the features of a government body and a mass organisation of the people, operate more and more like social organisations, with the masses participating extensively and directly in their work.”
Thus, one of the ways to enable the people to learn the art of administration is to encourage their participation on a voluntary basis in the work of the Soviets.
People’s control over the work of organs of administration is steadily expanding. This control is becoming widespread as is shown by the fact that at every factory and office groups have been elected to control the activities of the factory or office concerned, the quality of the output and the safeguarding of socialist property. Reports by these groups appear regularly in the press.
Enhancement of the Role of Mass Organisations
Another important means of extending socialist democracy, of drawing the people into the administration of the state, is to enhance the role played by mass organisations by giving them a steadily larger share of some of the functions of the government.
The largest of these organisations are the trade unions, which have an aggregate membership of 80 millions. They are a school of administration and economic management.
The trade unions are playing an ever larger role in helping to promote the economy, draw up state plans of economic development and manage production. They make sure that safety rules and labour legislation are observed, see to the fulfilment of housing programmes and 285allocate housing, and enforce efficiency in trade and public catering. They run numerous cultural centres, health and holiday homes, holiday resorts, summer and winter recreation camps for children, sports centres, and so forth.
A large network of public organisations and associations helping the state to administer the country’s economic, social and cultural life operate under their direction. These organisations include standing production conferences at industrial, transport and building enterprises which enable millions of people to participate directly in the management of production. Workers, employees, engineers, technicians, managerial staffs, Party and Y.C.L organisations and scientific and technical societies are represented in these standing conferences, of which 1,126,000 were in operation in the U.S.S.R. in 1962.
Moreover, the trade unions operate public designing bureaus, public economic analysis groups, public technical rate setting bureaus, councils of innovators and other bodies that play an important role in organising and managing industry. The councils of innovators have public instructors, who demonstrate advanced methods of work directly at the work-benches.
In the U.S.S.R. the mass organisations and institutions are a kind of school enabling people to learn to manage the economy.
More and more of the social and cultural functions of state bodies are being transferred to mass organisations. For example, the Young Communist League, which has a membership of nearly 23 millions, is active in bringing up and educating young people. Physical culture and sports, holiday services (health and holiday homes) and the sponsoring of lectures are completely in the hands of mass organisations. People’s universities of culture, [285•* opened throughout the country, are making a large contribution towards raising the people’s cultural level and drawing them into production and social activity.
The people are also active in maintaining law and order. Voluntary law maintenance detachments have been set up at factories, building sites, offices and collective farms and 286these actively assist the militia, the courts and the procurator’s office.
The government supports the various mass associations and organisations which facilitate the operation of state bodies or undertake (fully or partially) the functions of these bodies. The government gives these mass organisations a legal standing and renders them material, technical and organisational assistance.
It must be noted that the forms and rates of the transfer of the functions of state organs to mass organisations are different in the various spheres. They depend chiefly on the maturity of the mass organisations and their preparedness to take over the various functions, on the availability of activists able and willing to carry out these functions. The transfer of one function or another to the public is expedient only if it can be fulfilled by the people in their spare time without remuneration. Otherwise it would mean transferring work from one paid staff to another.
The enhancement of the role played by the public is a natural and objectively necessary process, which develops in proportion to the maturing of the corresponding conditions. This process should be neither forced nor accelerated. As in any other sphere the forestalling of developments can bring nothing but harm.
The extension of socialist democracy does not mean giving rein to pointless talking-shops, anarchy, insubordination and indifference. It is indivisibly linked up with the strengthening and development of socialist organisation and discipline. Socialist organisation and discipline are inconceivable without broad democracy, because organisation is efficient and discipline is firm only when they are not imposed from above but spring from the people’s experience of struggle and work and are accepted by them as their own discipline and their own organisation.
Moreover, in promoting democracy it should not be forgotten that this process is directly linked up with the strengthening of the socialist state and socialist legality. The breaking of laws under the screen of democracy and the use of the prestige of the public for covering anti-social acts should not be tolerated. The forms and methods of public self-administration can be worked out only by promoting and strengthening state forms of administration and 287extending democracy within the framework of these forms. Nobody is more qualified to teach the people to administer social affairs than the C.P.S.U. and the Soviet Government, which have accumulated vast and invaluable experience in administration.
Sweeping measures to further extend socialist democracy are envisaged in the new Programme of the C.P.S.U. These measures, which are designed to draw virtually all citizens into the administration of social affairs, include: improvement of the forms of public representation and of the democratic principles of the Soviet electoral system; promotion of the practice of nation-wide discussions of major problems of communist construction and of draft laws; the utmost extension of public control over the activities of organs of power and administration and enhancing the effectiveness of this control; systematic renewal of the personnel of leading bodies and consistent implementation of the principle of electivity and accountability of leaders and the gradual spread of this principle to all leading officials of state organs, mass organisations and cultural institutions.
Growth of the Role of the C.P.S.U.
Communist construction is characterised by the further growth of the role and importance of the Communist Party as the leading and directing force of Soviet society. This is a law-governed process springing from the objective development of Soviet society, from the massive growth of the scale and complexity of the tasks involved in the building of communism, the unprecedented upswing of creative activity by the masses, the drawing of millions upon millions of people into the management of production and the administration of the state, the further extension of socialist democracy, the mounting role of the theory of Marxism-Leninism in the life and development of society, and the communist education of the people.
The Party provides society with scientific leadership on the basis of a realistic assessment of potentialities and reserves, of a sober evaluation of the trends and laws of social development and a close study of its own experience and the experience of other socialist countries. The Party unswervingly applies the Leninist standards and principles of Party and state activity. The most important of these principles, which may be described as the Party’s tested instrument and greatest possession, is that of collective leadership, whose immutability is confirmed in the Party Programme and Rules.
Only by resting on this principle is it possible correctly to direct and promote the constantly growing creative energy and activity of the Party and the people, correctly analyse and soberly evaluate the objective situation and achieved successes, and opportunely bring to light and completely eradicate shortcomings. The Party therefore makes it obligatory that the principle of collective leadership is rigidly observed in all its organisations, from primary cells to the Central Committee.
Constant contact with the masses is the fundamental law guiding the life and work of the Party. The Party not only teaches and educates the masses, but also learns from them and generalises their enormous experience. Together with the people and together with the socialist government, in which the people are broadly represented, the Party resolves the major tasks of communist construction. Unity between the Party and the people is the guarantee of the successful building of communism.
Withering Away of the State
The state appeared with the rise of classes; with the disappearance of classes it will necessarily wither away. The time will come, Engels wrote, when society will send the state to where it belongs—the museum of antiquities, alongside the spinning wheel and the bronze axe.
When will the process of the withering away of the state begin? In the period of the proletarian dictatorship or during the gradual transition to communism?
It is a fact that the proletarian dictatorship contains some of the prerequisites for the withering away of the state. In societies with antagonistic classes the state has always been a weapon of politics, of the political supremacy of the minority over the majority, but the proletarian dictatorship, on the other hand, gives rise to the first state in which tremendous importance is attached to economic development, to economic policy. “Usually,” Lenin wrote, “the word ’administration’ is associated primarily with activities which are mainly or even exclusively political. Yet the very foundation and the very essence of Soviet power as well as the essence of the transition from capitalist to socialist society is that political tasks are subordinated to economic tasks.”
It was not accidental that Marx, Engels and Lenin characterised the socialist state from its very beginning as a “semi-state”, as a transitional form from the state in the proper meaning of the term to a “non-state”.
Naturally, this does not mean that the state of the proletarian dictatorship is a withering state. In addition to the seizure of political power, the working class is confronted with the immensely important and difficult task of building a socialist society. This task cannot be carried out without statehood, without the political suppression of the deposed exploiting classes, without a state organisation and administration of economic, political and cultural affairs.
Still more difficult and diverse tasks arise in the period of communist construction. Communism, as we have already said, is the result of conscious creative work by the people, of their dedicated labour and selfless struggle. But the creative efforts of the people must be united, organised and directed towards the attainment of a single goal. The socialist state led by the Communist Party is the force organising the building of the new society. Hence the need for the socialist state throughout the period of communist construction and the need for its steady development and improvement. The state, Lenin wrote, will be needed “until victorious socialism develops into full communism”. [289•*
However, in the period of communist construction the state is more of a “semi-state” than a state of the transition period. No longer a weapon for the political suppression of the exploiters, it is a political organisation called upon to 290direct economic, social and cultural affairs in a society building communism. The socialist state takes an important step from stale administration to public sell–administration. As is stated in the Programme of the C.P.S.U., as socialist statehood develops, it will gradually become communist self-government.
Will the absence of a state in developed communist society not lead to disorder, disorganisation and anarchy?
No, there will not be anarchy or disorganisation in communist society. It will be founded on discipline and organisation. But this will not be discipline and organisation by compulsion. It will be conscious discipline resting on a lofty sense of dignity in every citizen, on his consciousness of his place and purpose in society, on his habit to work for the benefit of society and abide by the rules of communist human association.
Under communism versatile production and social life will go hand in hand with strict order and a unity of will directing the efforts of millions of people towards a single objective. It is difficult to say how society will be administered in the future, but if we take into consideration the fact that this will be administration by polilically conscious, disciplined people, one can expect that it will be “like the mild leadership of a conductor”. [290•*
The function of administration of society, like the function of leadership of the country’s economic, social and cultural life, which is at present fulfilled by the state, will remain under communism as well. Moreover, it develops and improves with the development of society. However, the nature and methods of the administration of society will be different in communist society than under socialism. With the eradication of class distinctions in the process of the movement towards communism, organs of state administration gradually lose their political class character. With the disappearance of classes in communist society, they will, in the long run, merge with mass organisations and become organs of public self-administration, through which all citizens will participate in the administration of social affairs. The state will wither away and with it the specific apparatus of administration and the profession of 291civil servant will disappear and every citizen will devote part of his time to directing social affairs.
Of course, the wilhering away of the state must not be taken to mean a simple, sudden act. It is a gradual, prolonged process embracing an entire epoch. Throughout a certain span of time state administration and public selfadministration will coexist and intertwine, and the need for the state will fall away only when society is fully mature for self-administration, i.e., under conditions of complete communism. “The state,” Lenin wrote, “will be able to wither away completely when society adopts the rule: ’From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’, i.e., when people have become so accustomed to observing the fundamental rules of social intercourse and when their labour has become so productive that they will voluntarily work according to their ability." [291•*
Completion of the building of communism is the inner condition for the withering away of the state. However, external conditions are also needed, namely, the victory and consolidation of socialism on the international scene. When we speak of the withering away of the state, we must take the international situation into consideration. If communism triumphs in one or another country or in one group of countries or another and armed capitalist vultures remain in the world, the state function of defending the country will be preserved. This function will die away only when the threat of attack by reactionary imperialist powers ceases to exist. This will be achieved only with the complete abolition of capitalism on a world-wide scale.
Thus, the building of communism witnesses a gradual transformation of state administration into public selfadministration, a process directly linked up with the further improvement of the state apparatus and with the unswerving extension and improvement of socialist democracy.
* * *
Notes
[289•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 22, p. 323.
[290•*] Lenin, Collected Workx, Vol. 27, p. 269.
[291•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 469.
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