Lenin's Revolutionary Tactics in an Age of Liberal Revolution

Though he is widely recognized as the most brilliant revolutionary tactician of the twentieth
century, appreciation of Lenin’s revolutionary thought has largely concentrated on Marxist
or other class-based forms of revolutionary action. In addition, Lenin’s legacy is inextricably
tied to revolutionary violence and post-revolutionary dictatorship, leading some – including
many among the most recent wave of revolutionary protestors in the Western and Arab worlds
– to reject leadership or organizational models of revolution altogether. From Occupy to the
recent failures of liberal democratic revolution in Egypt, however, recent history has shown
the political weakness of leaderless and anti-organization movements, including those relying
on diffuse or social media platforms of mobilization. Against these patterns, I suggest that
we revisit and reassess the tactical insights of Lenin’s revolutionary thought even in our post-
Leninist democratic age, and argue that Lenin’s basic tactical approach is as relevant to liberal
revolutions as to Marxist ones.