Chapter V, §3 — Equal Rules and Unequal Conditions

V. I. Lenin · The State and Revolution

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Section summary

In the first phase of communist society, Lenin follows Marx in distinguishing common ownership of productive resources from fully needs-based distribution. The society still emerges from capitalism. After provision for shared requirements, individual consumption is related to labour contribution rather than being freely available according to need. The removal of private capitalist ownership does not immediately remove every inherited limitation.

Lenin focuses on the inequality that can remain when the same standard is applied to people with different capacities, circumstances, and dependants. A formally equal rule can produce unequal living conditions. He calls the surviving standard bourgeois right and argues that enforcing it leaves a residual role for public power, even as the basis for capitalist exploitation is removed. This is a theoretical account of an incomplete transition, not a claim that identical wages or any particular labour-accounting scheme automatically establishes socialism.

Key claims

Common ownership does not immediately produce distribution according to need in the first phase described here.
Applying an equal labour standard to differently situated people can preserve real inequality.
Lenin connects the persistence of enforceable distribution rules to the incomplete withering of the state.

Pause & reflect

For discussion

Use these questions for individual reflection or a study circle. Return to the passage to support your answer.

Compare two people contributing equal labour but supporting different numbers of dependants. What does the example show about formal equality?
What shared social provisions must be considered before discussing an individual's share of consumption?
Why does Lenin think a distribution rule can remain bourgeois in form after capitalist ownership has been removed?

Terms in context

first phase of communist society: The early stage, commonly called socialism by Lenin, that retains limitations inherited from capitalism despite common productive ownership.
bourgeois right: A formally equal standard that measures people by a common rule while leaving differences in their actual circumstances unresolved.
labour contribution: The work supplied by an individual, used here as the basis of a transitional distribution standard after shared provisions.

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