Blanquism

In left-wing discourse, 'Blanquism' refers to a conception of revolution generally attributed to Louis Auguste Blanqui which holds that socialist revolution should be carried out by a relatively small group of highly organised and secretive conspirators. Having taken power, the revolutionaries would then use the power of the state to introduce socialism or communism. It is considered a particular sort of 'putschism' - that is, the view that political revolution should take the form of a putsch or coup d'etat.

Pejorative use

It is rare for anyone to adopt 'Blanquism' as an appropriate description of their own beliefs. The term has most often been used polemically, to accuse some revolutionary of failing to sufficiently meld their praxis with the mass working class. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were keen to distinguish their conception of revolution from Blanquism. As Engels put it in a short fragment, The Program of the Blanquist Fugitives from the Paris Commune:

Lenin

Some critics of Lenin maintain that his conception of revolution was elitist and essentially 'Blanquist'. Rosa Luxemburg, for instance, as part of a longer section on Blanquism in her "Leninism or Marxism?", writes:

It is worth noting that by 'social democracy' Luxemburg has in mind the original use of the term derived from Marx and synonymous with 'socialism', something much more left-wing and radical than its contemporary usage. The influence of revisionism notwithstanding, she conceived of the social democratic party as a mass based organisation of working class struggle. Lenin, however, vigorously repudiated Blanquism:

References