I also feel like the problem with starting with Marx and getting into socialism as a government type is that Marx was an economist writing about economic forces while a lot of his work has been coopted into political theory.
Which makes discussions on government structure hard with a lot of leftists because once you remove discussing the economics of a society, having a discussion on political freedoms only becomes very problematic.
For instance, I saw some English speaking communists discussing a Chinese analysis of their government, which the analysis states that the Chinese government isn’t a democracy. It is true, China would describe itself as a technocracy, with trained political leaders in charge who are shielded from disruptive democratic whims. However, you could see the issue of them accepting that political power should be held only by elites.
I’m a bit sceptical of people who are too into “socialism as a government type” - they tend to develop fundamentalist ideas about what the perfect society should look like, and which means are justified in order to get there. Usually all means will be. To me socialism is at its best as a critique, allowing us to understand what’s going on in the world and how to fight it piece by piece instead of trying to construct some ideal society based on a feeble understanding of reality.
I also feel like the problem with starting with Marx and getting into socialism as a government type is that Marx was an economist writing about economic forces while a lot of his work has been coopted into political theory.
Which makes discussions on government structure hard with a lot of leftists because once you remove discussing the economics of a society, having a discussion on political freedoms only becomes very problematic.
For instance, I saw some English speaking communists discussing a Chinese analysis of their government, which the analysis states that the Chinese government isn’t a democracy. It is true, China would describe itself as a technocracy, with trained political leaders in charge who are shielded from disruptive democratic whims. However, you could see the issue of them accepting that political power should be held only by elites.
I’m a bit sceptical of people who are too into “socialism as a government type” - they tend to develop fundamentalist ideas about what the perfect society should look like, and which means are justified in order to get there. Usually all means will be. To me socialism is at its best as a critique, allowing us to understand what’s going on in the world and how to fight it piece by piece instead of trying to construct some ideal society based on a feeble understanding of reality.