Abstract

Marx and Engels inherited and developed the 18th Century notion of ideology as distorted consciousness. Although they did not speak explicitly of a 'proletarian ideology', they did develop the elements which Lenin then elaborated. His failure to develop a theory of ideology has left this task to contemporary Marxists and Marxist-Leninists, who often do this in the process of criticizing non-Marxist theories. A lively discussion took place in the 1960's in Poland and in the Soviet Union. One of the results has been to cast doubt on the systemic validity of the principle of party-mindedness.