Democracy is a secondary aspect of the state within the class perspective; thus there are relatively few studies that single it out for explanation. Democracy is seen either as a direct consequence of class struggle, as a fictitious symbol mystifying the working class, as representing conflicts only among capitalist interests, or as a vision of the future, unrealizable under conditions of capitalism.

Democracy and capitalism

Class theorists admit that there is almost no serious class theory of the democratic aspect of the state. Swedish sociologist Goran Therborn said that “the entire Marxist tradition has had enormous difficulty in coming to grips with the paradoxical phenomenon of bourgeois democracy – a regime in which the exploiting minority rules by means of a system of legally free popular elections” (1978, p. 248). British sociologist Colin Crouch adds that “most Marxist theory [is reluctant] to admit any element of genuine pluralism within the polities of the liberal democracies” (1979, p. 13). One reason is a fear that the theorists will lose the distinctive political and theoretical commitments to socialism, the working class, and revolution and become mere reformists by using the tools of bourgeois democratic institutions. Political philosopher C. B. MacPherson agrees with this possibility. “Pluralism had (and has) socialist advocates but its influence has not been confined to socialist ranks, and its effect has been to turn social thought away from class by emphasizing the multiplicity and moral value of group life.”