The issue of democracy is not strange or alien to Marxist thought. Contrary to this, democracy was one of the main issues discussed at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Marxism of the Second International as well as in the 1970s with the emergence of "Eurocommunism". In this latter context the debate was marked by speeches by Louis Althusser and Nicos Poulantzas on the concept of dictatorship of the proletariat and democratic socialism in which they demarcate what strategy should be adopted by Leftist parties and movements. The backdrop of that debate among thinkers established a rich analysis on the meaning of the concept of democracy in Marxist thought, which demarcates their differences in relation to modern political thought in its definition of state and democracy.
Althusser; Poulantzas; dictatorship of the proletariat; democracy