The ideological differences between Marxism and anarchism have caused both to impact world affairs in different ways: one has achieved worldwide prominence; the other utter insignificance. First and most importantly, let’s discuss the classic, primary antagonism between the two camps. Karl Marx believed that a “dictatorship of the proletariat” is necessary following a socialist revolution. This means that after capitalism is overthrown in any nation, there must be a period in which the working-class assumes state power, and with it, actively combats all aggressive bourgeois attempts to reverse the revolutionary gains they have made. Anarchists reject this period as dangerous. The “dictatorship of the proletariat,” they say, will easily turn into a dictatorship over the proletariat that represses the people just as much as the capitalists did. Therefore, according to anarchists, workers should abolish the state immediately upon a revolution, leaving a stateless and classless society to be run in by local, autonomous communities. Marxists too, desire a stateless society, but say only once reactionary bourgeois threats are completely averted can this be achieved. Disagreement over the role of the state was the cause of the original split between anarchists and Marxists in 1872. Since then, the differences between the two have grown, and both camps have become increasingly hostile towards one another. To measure the validity of either, it’s necessary to pick apart the details of both ideologies, examine their histories, and determine how both have functioned in practice.
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