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Works of Karl Marx
Draft Plan for a Work on The Modern State [241]
Source: MECW Volume 4, p. 666;
Written: presumably in November 1844
First published: in Marx/Engels, Gosamtatugabe, Abt. 1, Bd. 5, 1932
1) The history of the origin of the French Revolution.
The self-conceit of the political sphere — to mistake itself for the ardent state. The attitude of the revolutionaries towards civil society. All elements exist in duplicate form, as civic elements and [those of] the state.
2) The proclamation of the rights of man and the constitution of the state. Individual freedom and public authority.
Freedom, equality and unity. Sovereignty of the people.
3) State and civil society.
4) The representative state and the charter.
The constitutional representative state, the democratic representative state.
5) Division of power. Legislative and executive power.
6) Legislative power and the legislative bodies. Political clubs.
7) Executive power. Centralisation and hierarchy. Centralisation and political civilisation. Federal system and industrialism. State administration and local government.
8') Judicial power and law.
8") Nationality and the people.
9') The political parties.
9") Suffrage, the fight for the abolition of the state and of bourgeois society.