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Permanent revolution

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Permanent Revolution is a Marxist theory most closely associated with Leon Trotsky, devised as an explanation of how socialist revolutions could occur in societies that had not achieved advanced capitalism. The phrase was coined by Marx in 1850. The theory states that the bourgeois democratic tasks in countries with delayed bourgeois democratic development cannot be accomplished except through the establishment of a workers' state, and further, that the creation of a workers state would inevitably involve inroads against capitalist property. Thus, the accomplishment of bourgeois democratic tasks passes over into proletarian tasks, and it is in this sense that the revolution is "permanent" in that it must be "continuous" until "final" victory.

Origins of the Doctrine

Trotsky's conception of Permanent Revolution is based on his understanding, drawing on the work of the founder of Russian Marxism Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (1856-1918), that in 'backward' countries the tasks of the Bourgeois Democratic Revolution could not be achieved by the bourgeoisie itself. This conception was first developed in the essays later collected in his book 1905 and in his essay Results and Prospects, and later developed in his 1929 book, The Permanent Revolution.

The basic idea of Trotsky's theory is that in Russia the bourgeoisie would not carry out a thorough revolution which would institute political democracy and solve the land question. These measures were assumed to be essential to develop Russia economically. Therefore it was argued the future revolution must be led by the proletariat who would not only carry through the tasks of the Bourgeois Democratic Revolution but would commence a struggle to surpass the bourgeois democratic revolution. How far the proletariat would be able to travel upon that road would depend upon the further course of events and not upon the designation of the revolution as "Bourgeois Democratic". In this sense the revolution would be made permanent. Trotsky believed that a new workers state would not be able to hold out against the pressures of a hostile capitalist world unless socialist revolutions quickly took hold in other countries as well. This theory was advanced in opposition to the position held by the Stalinist faction within the Bolshevik Party that "socialism in one country" could be built in the Soviet Union.

Elaboration by Trotsky

Trotsky's theory was developed as an alternative to the Social Democratic theory that undeveloped countries must pass through two distinct revolutions. First the Bourgeois Democratic Revolution, which socialists would assist, and at a later stage, the Socialist Revolution with an evolutionary period of capitalist development separating those stages. This is often referred to as the Theory of Stages or as Stagism.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks initially held to a version of the Stagist theory, since they were still connected to the Social Democrats at the time. Lenin's earlier theory shared Trotsky's premise that the bourgoisie would not complete a bourgois revolution. Lenin thought that a 'Democratic Dictatorship' of the workers and peasants could complete the tasks of the bourgoisie. Lenin was arguing by 1917 not only that the Russian bourgeoisie would not be able to carry through the tasks of the Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and therefore the proletariat had to take state power, but also that it should take economic power through the Soviets. This position was put forward to the Bolsheviks on his return to Russia, in his April Theses. The first reaction of the majority of Bolsheviks was one of rejection of the Theses. Initially, only Alexandra Kollontai rallied to Lenin's position within the Bolshevik party.

After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks, now including Trotsky, did not discuss the theory of Permanent Revolution as such. However, its basic theses can be found in such popular outlines of Communist theory as The ABC's of Communism, which sought to explain the program of the Communist Party, by Preobrazhensky and Nikolai Bukharin (1888-1938).

Later on, after Lenin's death in the 1920s, the theory did assume importance in the internal debates within the Communist Party and was a bone of contention within the opposition to Stalin. In essence a section of the Communist Party leadership, whose views were voiced at the theoretical level by Bukharin, argued that socialism could be built in a single country, even an underdeveloped one like Russia. This meant that there would be less need to encourage revolutions in advanced Western countries in the hope that a Socialist Germany (for example) would later give Russia the economic base needed to construct a socialist society. Bukharin argued that Russia's pre-existing economic base was sufficient for the task at hand. Acting on these ideas, the Communist International became less revolutionary and more willing to compromise with "reactionary" forces, for example by advising its Chinese section to back the Guomindang's efforts to unify China. This effort was seen as being the Chinese Bourgeois Democratic Revolution, and the fact that communists supported it meant a return to a Stagist position.

The question of the Chinese revolution and the subjection of the Chinese Communist Party to control by the Guomindang at the behest of the Russian Communist Party was a topic of argument within the opposition to Stalin in the Russian Communist Party. On the one hand, figures such as Karl Radek argued that a Stagist strategy was correct for China, although their writings are only known to us now second hand, having perished in the 1930s (if original copies exist in the archives, they have not been located since the fall of the USSR in 1989). Trotsky, on the other hand, generalised his Theory of Permanent Revolution, which had only been applied in the case of Russia previously, and argued that the proletariat needed to take power in a process of uninterrupted and Permanent Revolution in order to carry out the tasks of the Bourgeois Democratic revolution.

His position was put forward in his essay entitled The Permanent Revolution, which can be found today in a single book together with Results and Prospects. Not only did Trotsky generalise his theory of Permanent Revolution in this essay but he also grounded it in the idea of combined and uneven development. This argument goes, again in contrast to the conceptions inherent within Stagist theory, that capitalist nations, indeed all class-based societies, develop unevenly and that some parts will develop more swiftly than others. However it is also argued that this development is combined and that each part of the world economy is increasingly bound together with all other parts. The conception of combined and uneven development also recognises that some areas may even regress further economically and socially as a result of their integration into a world economy.

The Theory since Trotsky

Since Trotsky's assassination in 1940, the theory of Permanent Revolution has been held to by the various Trotskyist groups which have developed since then. However, the theory has been extended only modestly, if at all. While their conclusions differ, works by mainstream Trotskyist theoreticians such as Robert Chester, Joseph Hansen, Michael Löwy and Livio Maitan related it to post-war political developments in Algeria, Cuba and elsewhere.

An attempt to elaborate an exception to the theory was made by Tony Cliff of the Socialist Workers Party (Britain), in his "Theory of Deflected Permanent Revolution". In his 1963 essay Deflected Permanent Revolution he develops the idea that where the proletariat is unable to take power, a section of the intelligentsia may be able to carry out a Bourgeois Revolution. He further argues that the use of Marxist concepts by such elements (most notable in Cuba and China, but also for example by regimes espousing Arab Socialism or similar philosophies) is not genuine but is the use of Marxism as an ideology of power. This reflects his view that these countries are state capitalist societies rather than deformed workers states. Cliff's views have been criticised by more orthodox Trotskyists as an abandonment of Trotsky's theory in all but name in favour of the stagist theory, countering that Cliff was more cautious than Trotsky about the potential of the working class in underdeveloped countries to seize power. Cliff saw such revolutions as a detour (deflection) on the road to socialist revolution rather than a necessary preliminary to it.

Influence on Neoconservatism

The legacy of Trotskyism in neoconservatism, particularly through the figure of Max Shachtman, is especially evident as it relates to the doctrine of permanent revolution. The influence is most conspicuous in the neoconservative belief that undemocratic governments can no longer be tolerated anywhere in the world, thus rejecting the notion of "democracy in one country" in favor of "global democratic revolution". Indeed, this much has been admitted by the leading neocon writer Charles Krauthammer.

This has been exemplified by George W. Bush, who coined the phrase "global democratic revolution" first in a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy in October 2003, and since as a staple not only of his speeches but in the formal policy statements of his administration. This belief most notoriously gained prominence in Bush's second inaugural address of January 2005.

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