this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
620 points (93.9% liked)
Political Memes
5446 readers
3278 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Electoralism doesn't work if you approach it as the end be all of all political battlefields. If you consider it one battlefield of many, from which you won't get total victory, but from which you can get substantial stuff, it's useful.
The SPD used to be radical, you know. All the social-democratic parties were.
Electoralism deradicalizes and demobilizes the working class, as the means become ends themselves. The politicians end up the leaders of the movement through their position as figureheads and spokesmen for "the people's demands. To be a politician you must strive to be electable. You gotta satisfy wealthy donors to finance your campaigns. This puts pressure on you to make your platform moderate. This is what happened to most of the social-democratic parties of Europe.
Furthermore, the structure of state and the economy means that the unelected state bureaucracy (such as the various managers and officials in the various governments and agencies, or the armed forces) can struggle against you and stifle reforms, while capitalists can use the threat of disinvestment, capital flight, and capital strikes to pressure you, seeing as how they control the economy and you rely on them as a politician to build roads, for example. This happened to the Labour government during the 60s and 70s. The state bureaucracy violently put down the Allende government and the Bosch government as well.
Finally, it accustoms the proletariat to place its fate in other people's hands. It disengages people from direct action.