Also known as “state power”. The power of the ruling class to implement its political rule over the ruled class by means of the state machinery, usually ensured by organs of violence such as the army, police, prisons and courts. Sometimes it also refers to the general term for the relevant organs that embody the power of the state and exercise its functions. It is a product and an instrument of class struggle, and has coercive and universally binding nature. State power is the core and main pillar of the social and political structure, i.e., political superstructure, and is the basic setting for the operation of the political system of a country. Politics is the concentrated embodiment of economics, it most directly reflects and serves the economic foundation and acts as a strong constraint on the other parts of the superstructure. By unifying the whole political structure, state power became a powerful apparatus that controls the society and by which whole social life is controlled and administered. State power manifests itself in different forms in different fields. In class society, politics represents the fundamental interests of a definite class in a concentrated manner. Therefore, which class holds power and which class implements its line, guidelines and policies is an important hallmark to distinguish between different superstructures…
Article Length: 3,844 characters
Own the print edition of The Great Dictionary of Marxism for unrestricted study and reference.