Scientifically Understanding and Grasping Engels’s View on Authority

In the course of his struggle against various erroneous ideas within the working class and among hostile elements, Engels gradually expounded a series of issues, including the importance of establishing and maintaining authority for social production activities and the proletarian revolution, the scientific connotation of authority, and the relationship between authority and obedience as well as autonomy. At the critical juncture of striving for new victories in comprehensively building a modern socialist country, Engels’s view on authority holds significant enlightening implications for resolutely upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee in the New Era.

恩格斯在同工人阶级内部和敌对分子的各种错误思想作斗争的过程中，逐步阐述了确立和维护权威之于社会生产活动、无产阶级革命的重要性，权威的科学内涵及权威与服从、自治的关系等系列问题。在夺取全面建设社会主义现代化国家新胜利的关键时期，恩格斯权威观对新时代坚决维护党中央权威具有重要启示意义。

Upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for comprehensively building a modern socialist country. In *Anti-Dühring*, Engels elaborated that the emergence of authority is inseparable from the reconciliation of group interests, the maintenance of social order, and the unification of class will; it is an objective and inevitable phenomenon accompanying the development of human society. He emphasized that the centralized unity of the Party and the authority of the central leadership are the fundamental guarantees for the victory of the proletarian revolution. In the article *On Authority*, Engels, by citing examples from production and daily life such as cotton mills and railways, powerfully demonstrated that “in every instance we find a conspicuous authority” [1]1 The 14th Five-Year Plan refers to China’s national economic and social development plan for 2021–2025, formally titled the “Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.”, and on this basis further criticized the fallacy of anarchists who, disregarding objective social conditions, advocated unlimited individual freedom and the negation of all authority. In Engels’s view, authority, as a product of socio-economic development, will inevitably expand its scope of action as the social economy continues to advance.

维护党中央权威是全面建设社会主义现代化国家的根本保障。恩格斯在《反杜林论》中阐述了权威的产生同群体利益的调和、社会秩序的维护、阶级意志的统一密不可分，是与人类社会发展相伴随的一种客观必然现象，并强调党的集中统一和中央权威是无产阶级革命取得胜利的根本保证。在《论权威》一文中，恩格斯通过列举棉纺厂、铁路等生产生活中的例子，有力论证了“不论在哪一种场合，都要碰到一个显而易见的权威”，并在此基础上进一步批判了无政府主义者不顾客观的社会条件而主张个人无限自由和否定一切权威的谬论。在恩格斯看来，权威作为社会经济发展的产物，其作用的范围也必将随着社会经济的不断向前发展而不断扩大。

The *Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035* has clarified the long-range objectives and new, higher requirements for basically realizing socialist modernization. During the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China’s development environment faces profound and complex changes. Whether it can achieve stable and sustained economic growth, social stability and harmony, and foster new opportunities amid crises and open up new horizons amid changes is of utmost importance. In this complex and grand social transformation, the authority of the Party Central Committee is all the more necessary to ensure the scientific ideological guidance, strong political leadership, and comprehensive social mobilization for comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Particularly under circumstances where the social environment has undergone enormous differences compared to the past due to the growth of modernizing factors, there is an urgent need for the authority of the Party Central Committee to further unify and clarify the goals of socialist modernization and to continuously provide effective mechanisms for organization, coordination, and management to facilitate its smooth progress. Engels’s exposition of the role and function of authority in *On Authority* provides a direct theoretical basis for fully leveraging the functions and roles of the authority of the Party Central Committee in maintaining long-term social stability, integrating various social resources, mobilizing multiple forces of the state, and coordinating and resolving complex contradictions and conflicts on the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. This centrally reflects the historical transmission, logical deduction, and practical orientation of the Party’s authority, political authority, and social authority under the centralized and unified authority of the Party Central Committee in the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country.

《中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展第十四个五年规划和2035年远景目标纲要》明确了基本实现社会主义现代化的远景目标和新的更高要求。“十四五”期间，我国的发展环境面临深刻复杂的变化，能否实现经济行稳致远、社会安定和谐，在危机中育新机、于变局中开新局，至关重要。在这一复杂、宏大的社会变革中，更需党中央权威保证全面建设社会主义现代化国家的科学思想引领、坚强政治领导和全面社会动员。特别是在社会环境因现代化要素的增长而与之前有了巨大差异的情况下，亟须党中央权威进一步统一和明确社会主义现代化建设目标，并不断为其顺利推进提供切实有效的组织、协调和管理机制。恩格斯在《论权威》中对权威作用和功能的阐释，为充分发挥党中央权威在全面建设社会主义现代化国家新征程中维护社会长久稳定、整合社会各种资源、动员国家多方力量、协调化解复杂矛盾冲突等方面的功能和作用提供了直接的理论依据。这集中体现了党的权威、政治权威和社会权威在党中央权威的集中统一下，在全面建设社会主义现代化国家新征程中的历史传递性、逻辑递推性和现实指向性。

The key to upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee lies in upholding the core position of the leader. Engels particularly emphasized the critical significance and role of the core and the leader in establishing and maintaining central authority. Regarding the concept of “core,” in a broad sense it mainly refers to a political organization occupying a core position and exerting core strength among many political forces; in a narrow sense, it mainly refers to a certain leading figure occupying a core position and playing a core role within his political organizational system, which is quite similar in connotation to the concept of “leader” frequently used by Marx and Engels. Thus, “core” and “leader” not only have great similarity in conceptual connotation but also have a very close connection. In fact, a leader is a kind of core authority. This authority is mainly embodied in the person who occupies a leading position within a political party, group, or social movement, indicating a relationship of obedience and a role of responsibility. Therefore, upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee is not only reflected in the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee but also in the core position of the leader within the entire Party. The authority of the leadership core is the main carrier and manifestation form of the Party’s endogenous authority.

维护党中央权威的关键在于维护领袖的核心地位。恩格斯特别强调核心和领袖对树立和维护中央权威的关键意义和作用。关于“核心”的概念，在广义上主要是指一种政治组织在诸多政治力量中处于核心地位和发挥核心力量，在狭义上则主要是指某一领导人物在其政治组织体系中处于核心地位、发挥核心作用，和马克思恩格斯经常使用的“领袖”概念的内涵较为相似。这样，“核心”和“领袖”不仅在概念内涵上有很大的相似性，而且二者具有非常紧密的关联。实际上，领袖是一种核心权威。这种权威主要体现在政党、群体或社会运动中居于领导者地位的人，表明的是一种服从关系和责任角色。因此，维护党中央权威不仅体现为党中央集中统一领导，还体现为领袖个人在全党的核心地位。领导核心的权威是政党内生权威的主要载体和表现形式。

History and reality, theory and practice have repeatedly proven that only when a political party establishes and maintains a leader core can it have cohesion, centripetal force, and combat effectiveness, and can it truly establish the Party’s authority. In this regard, Engels vividly expressed this in *On Authority* using the story of a ship sailing on the sea: “in moments of danger, the lives of all on board depend on the immediate and absolute obedience of everyone to the will of a single person” [2]. For the Communist Party of China, which has over 95 million members and governs a country with a population of 1.4 billion, a core leader or leading figure is all the more necessary. Adhering to the Party’s overall leadership and strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee are the primary goals and fundamental requirements for economic and social development during the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan. To implement this principle and requirement, Party organizations at all levels need to prioritize the Party’s political construction, promote the close unity of all Party members and cadres around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, resolutely struggle against all erroneous

历史和现实、理论和实践也一再证明，一个政党只有确立起、维护好领袖核心，才会有凝聚力、向心力和战斗力，才会真正树立起政党权威。对此，恩格斯在《论权威》中运用船只在大海航行的故事进行了形象表达：“在危急关头，大家的生命能否得救，就要看所有的人能否立即绝对服从一个人的意志。”对于拥有9500多万名党员、在14亿人口大国执政的中国共产党来说，更是需要一个核心的领袖人物或领导者。坚持党的全面领导、加强党中央集中统一领导，是“十四五”时期经济社会发展的首要目标和根本要求。贯彻这一原则和要求，需要各级党组织把党的政治建设摆在首位，推动广大党员干部紧紧团结在以习近平同志为核心的党中央周围，坚决同一切损害党中央权威的错误思想作斗争，真正把增强“四个意识”、坚定“四个自信”、做到“两个维护”内化为强化党中央权威意志、优化党中央权威决策、凸显党中央权威优势、展现党中央权威力量的政治自觉和心理认同。

The foundation of upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee lies in adhering to the organic unity of institutional authority and the authority of the rule of law. In *On Authority*, Engels points out that authority refers both to obedience to power and to conviction in prestige. This obedience is not any other kind of obedience, but rather the subordination of some people’s will to that of others, carrying an obvious coercive character. With the sustained development of China’s economy and society, especially in the process of orderly advancing socialist modernization, we have continuously endowed authority with non-coercive connotations such as democracy, consultation, and participation, consistently upholding voluntary obedience based on ideological guidance, value identification, and unity of interests. This is both a basic requirement of the essence of authority and an important manifestation of social progress. The establishment, consolidation, and development of the political authority of the Communist Party of China cannot be separated from the organic integration of political authority, institutional authority, and the authority of the rule of law.

维护党中央权威的根本在于坚持制度权威与法治权威的有机统一。恩格斯在《论权威》中指出，权威既是指对权力的服从，也意味着对威信的信服。这种服从不是别的什么服从，而是使一些人的意志服膺于另一些人的意志，带有明显的强制性。随着我国经济社会的持续发展，特别在有序推进社会主义现代化建设的过程中，我们不断赋予权威以民主、协商、参与等非强制性内涵，始终坚持思想引领、价值认同和利益统一基础上的自觉服从，这既是权威本质的基本要求，也是社会进步的重要体现。中国共产党政党权威的建立、巩固和发展，离不开政治权威、制度权威和法治权威的有机结合。

The 14th Five-Year Plan [1]1 The 14th Five-Year Plan refers to China’s national economic and social development plan for 2021–2025, formally titled the “Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.” points out that we must “uphold the organic unity of the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the people being the masters of the country, and law-based governance, and promote the self-improvement and development of the socialist political system with Chinese characteristics.” In the New Era, the consolidation and maintenance of the authority of the Party Central Committee depend on the combined effect of multiple factors, among which the factors of institutions and the rule of law are the most fundamental. On the one hand, by upholding and improving the fundamental political system and basic political systems of the state, and continuously advancing the legalization and institutionalization of the state power system, the state governance system, and governance capacity, this is the basic path and method for resolutely upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee. On the other hand, through comprehensively advancing law-based governance and building a rule-of-law China, especially by perfecting the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics with the Constitution at its core, embedding the authority of the rule of law into political authority can provide stable, long-lasting, and efficient rule-of-law safeguards for the authority of the Party Central Committee. This is both an inherent requirement of Marxist thought on authority and a prominent reflection of the modern transformation of the state governance system and governance capacity.

“十四五”规划指出，我们要“坚持中国共产党领导、人民当家作主、依法治国有机统一，推进中国特色社会主义政治制度自我完善和发展”。新时代，党中央权威的巩固和维护有赖于多因素的综合作用，其中制度和法治的因素最具根本性。一方面，通过坚持和完善国家根本政治制度、基本政治制度，不断推进国家权力体系、国家治理体系和治理能力的合法化和制度化，是坚决维护党中央权威的基本路径和方法。另一方面，通过全面依法治国、建设法治中国，特别是完善以宪法为核心的中国特色社会主义法律体系，以法治权威嵌入政治权威，可以为党中央权威切实提供稳定、长久、高效的法治保障。这既是马克思主义权威思想的内在规定，也是国家治理体系和治理能力现代转型的突出反映。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗