Page:Lenin - The State and Revolution.pdf/63

 every new Government had taken over as a desirable weapon for use against its opponents—it was just this power which should have fallen throughout France as it had fallen in Paris.

"The Commune was compelled to recognize from the very first that the working class, having obtained supremacy, could no longer carry on the business of government by means of the old machinery; that, in order that the working class might not lose again its newly-won supremacy, it must, on the one hand, sweep aside the whole of the old machine of oppression which had hitherto been used against it, and on the other, secure itself against its own deputies and officials by declaring them all, without exception, revocable at any time."

Engels emphasizes again and again that not only in a Monarchy, but also in a democratic republic, the State remains the State, that is, it retains its fundamental and characteristic feature, viz., the transformation of officials—"the servants of society"—and of its organs into the rulers of Society.

"Against this inevitable feature of all systems of government that have existed hitherto, viz., the transformation of the State and its organs from servants into the lords of Society, the Commune used two unfailing remedies. First, it appointed to all posts, administrative, legal, educational, persons elected by universal suffrage; introducing at the same time the right of recalling those elected at any time by the decision of their electors. Secondly, it paid all officials, both high and low, only such pay as was received by any other worker. The highest salary paid by the Commune was 6,000 francs (about $1,200).

"Thus was created an effective barrier to place-hunting and career-making even apart from the imperative mandates of the deputies in representative institutions introduced by the Commune over and above this."

Engels touches here on the interesting boundary where a consistent democracy is, on the one hand, transformed into Socialism, and, on the other, Socialism. For, in order to destroy the State, it is necessary to convert the functions of the public service into such simple operations of control and bookkeeping as are within the reach of the vast majority of the population, and, ultimately, of every single individual.

And, in order to do away completely with the political adventurer it must be made impossible for an "honorable," though unsalaried, sinecure to the public service to be used as a jumping-off ground for a highly profitable post in a bank or a joint stock company, as happens constantly in the freest capitalist countries.