Social Contract and Capital: Rousseau, Marx, Revolution and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Abstract

Marx supposedly represents a radical break from liberal individualist property oriented thinking. In fact, Marx represents an integration of the best points of a variety of liberal individualists, notably Locke and Rousseau, but also to a lesser extent Aristotle and even Plato. Marx is an extension of, not a break from, mainstream thinkers in Western political and economic thought: all Marx's main ideas can be traced to one canonical scholar or another. Understanding analytical tools common to both Liberalism and Marxism contextualizes their divergences and allows one to better understand both the successes and failures of Marxism as a critique in practice of liberal state theory.

Keywords: Rousseau, Marx, Social Contract, marxism, marxist, liberalism, legal history, legal theory, jurisprudence

JEL Classification: K10, K30