Hist 4c/Marcuse, L11 source interp.

In capitalist society … democracy is always hemmed in by the narrow limits set by capitalist exploitation, and consequently always remains, in reality, a democracy for the minority, only for the propertied classes, only for the rich. Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners. Owing to the conditions of capitalist exploitation the modern wage slaves are so crushed by want and poverty that "they cannot be bothered with democracy," "they cannot be bothered with politics"; in the ordinary peaceful course of events the majority of the population is debarred from participation in public and political life.

Aspects that could be included in a source interpretation:
(note: any two of these would be sufficient for an "A" on an exam interpretation; even one could earn an "A" if well discussed! In no way do I expect any of you to be able to find this many things in a source-you are just learning how!!)

• note the primary importance of economic equality for (true) freedom
  • contrast with Olympe de Gouges, who emphasized legal equality
• note that there are different types of slavery: chattel slavery, as in Equiano's case; explicit legal slavery of whole groups of people, as in the case of ancient Greece (and of the Russian serfs); and a new form, wage-slavery, which was based on neither ownership nor externally defined group membership, but on the relationship to the means of production
• Lenin draws on Marx (and Engels) in the quotations and terminlogy (class, "capitalist exploitation")(link to Communist Manifesto)
• discuss how some of these specific statements are reflected by characters in Kollontai's Vasilisa Malygina
• contrast to Kant, who said people's non-participation in the decision-making process was their own fault ("self-incurred tutelage"). Lenin explains that they are "so crushed by want and poverty."
• finally, given some knowledge of the Russian Revolution, one might link this explanation for (non-)voting behavior with the observation that Lenin was firmly convinced that the vanguard revolutionary (Communist) party should push through the economic/social/political reforms REGARDLESS of the opinions of the electorate. He put this into practice in his Jan. 1918 coup during the Duma elections.
  And in the decades since Lenin, on occasion communist parties have used this reasoning to justify their failure to win majorities in elections.
• Beyond even that, one might say something about voter apathy in the US-whether you think that it has anything to do with lack of economic power, or economic repression.