Marx and the paradox of liberation

Pablo Paniagua

Economic Affairs, 2026, vol. 46, issue 2, 204-223

Abstract: This article explores the consequences of Karl Marx's political and philosophical thought. Marx advances a coherent vision of humanity's emancipation, aiming to transcend market‐based economic processes and private property. But this vision poses two problems related to the institutions of political power. First, the challenge posed by the ‘vortex of power’, which generates the political freedom to reassign property rights at will, makes it incompatible with the rule of law and the separation of powers; and second, the elimination of market mechanisms for coordinating resource allocation necessarily entails the rational, explicit guidance of the economy, resulting in top‐down planning and arbitrary subordination of individual ends. Both problems lead to the concentration of power, the suppression of dissent, and the end of the rule of law. Marx's vision is incompatible with liberal democracy and human liberty in its wider sense, an internal paradox in his thought.

Date: 2026
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