Marx's Concept of State

Our understanding of the State, as a social phenomenon, is coloured by three pre-conceived notions : (1) Our traditional attitude, centred round our ideal of a benevolent Monarch, loosely ruling over a rural community governed by its own autonomous village panchayats. (2) Our newly-acquired preference for a parliamentary democracy, and for a State, which interferes least with social institutions and undertakes, only when directly necessary, social welfare measures. (3) Our ambivalent attitude towards a State which undertakes rigorous planning, taxation or investment programmes. We desire to have a benevolent, socialist dictatorship, but we equally desire to have decentralization, freedom of capitalist enterprise, etc.