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To get to the root of the matter, let it be recalled that…

“To get to the root of the matter, let it be recalled that political relations are never "decreed": in the last analysis they are always the form assumed by fundamental social relations at the level of production. As Marx wrote in the introduction to his Contribution to the Critique of Political…” quote by Charles Bettelheim
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““To get to the root of the matter, let it be recalled that political relations are never "decreed": in the last analysis they are always the form assumed by fundamental social relations at the level of production. As Marx wrote in the introduction to his Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, "each mode of production produces its specific legal relations, political forms, etc." This determination of political forms by modes of production enables us to understand how it was that the limited extent to which changes were effected at the level of production relations (particularly in the division of labor in the factories, the division of labor between town and country, and class divisions in the rural areas), tended in the final analysis to offset the achievements of the October Revolution. Viewed over a period of several decades, this determining relation also explains why, in the absence of a renewed revolutionary offensive attacking production relations in depth, and of a political line permitting such an offensive to develop successfully, the dictatorship of the proletariat itself has ended by being annihilated, and why we are seeing in the Russia of today, under new conditions, a resurgence of internal political relations and of political relations with the rest of the world which look like a "reproduction" of bourgeois political relations, and even of those of the tsarist period.””

Charles Bettelheim

About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Political structures reflect underlying economic relations; changes in production shape law and politics.

In simple terms: Economics drives politics.

Key Takeaway

Address economic foundations to effect political change.

Themes

political economy historical materialism revolutionary theory

Mood

analytical academic

Type

theoretical critical

When to use this quote

  • policy reform
  • labor negotiations
  • social movements

Key Concepts

production relations state formation class dynamics

Questions to Reflect On

  • How do economic bases influence current political systems?
  • What reforms can alter production relations for better outcomes?
A Different Perspective

Complex theory may be inaccessible to lay audiences.

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