Political Marxism on two conceptions of democracy

The article presents an analysis of democracy from the point of view of Political Marxism. Political Marxism is new stream in contemporary Marxism, which is based on the works of American historian Robert Brenner and the Canadian political scientist Ellen Wood. She distinguishes between two conceptions of democracy. The ancient concept of democracy grew out of a historical experience which had conferred a unique civic status on subordinate classes, creating in particular that unprecedented formation, the peasant citizen. Our contemporary concept of democracy, originating not in Athenian democracy but in European feudalism and culminating in liberal capitalism, with the major milestones, like Magna Carta and 1688, marks the ascent of the propertied classes. In this case, it is not a question of peasants liberating themselves from the political domination of their overlords but lords themselves asserting their independent powers against the claims of monarchy