This paper seeks to present critically the Rousseauist ideas on democracy and their relation to K. Marx’s political thought. Although it accepts the influence of Rousseau’ s conception of democracy on the Marxian one, it defends the thesis that K. Marx, through his critique of political economy, succeeded in transcending the Rous- seauist theory of democracy, shaping and providing the basis for a more fruitful and really revolutionary one. Moreover, it defends the thesis that K. Marx’s conception of the dictatoship of the proletariat, as a state which is in the process of withering away, not only is compatible with democracy, but it really presupposes the existence, function and development of a multiform socialist democracy as the only way to a self-governed society, i.e. a stateless and classless society.
