Duka A.V. Marxism and Elitism: Why was Karl Marx not an Elitist? In: Russian elitology: innovative answers to the challenges of the modern world: materials of the Third All-Russian Elitological Congress with international participation February 15-16, 2019, Rostov-on-Don ...

Abstract

The article discusses the influence of Marxism on the theory of elites, as well as why Marx (and Engels) did not write about elites? Why did Marxo-Marxism do without the concept of elite? The way in which this problem is considered, following after Richard Rorty, can be defined as a historical reconstruction coupled with intellectual history. In this regard, the opposite approaches are doxography and anochronic rational reconstruction. The text analyzes the socio-political and economic context of the emergence and development of Marxist theory, the “linguistic” and intellectual context of its existence, the individual characteristics of the intellectual formation of Karl Marx, and the features of his scientific analysis. The conclusion is made about the self-sufficiency of Marxo-Marxism. There is no place for elites and elitist analysis in it, since the latter is aimed at another and describes a different reality, although often in the old language (this is especially noticeable in Pareto), and is in a different context. The changing context of theorizing at the end of the 19th century contributed to the emergence of an elitist type of analysis.