Dual power - Definition and Overview

Dual power is a concept first articulated in an article by Lenin, "The Dual Power," which described a situation in the wake of the February Revolution in which two powers, the workers councils (or Soviets) and the official state apparatus of the Provisional Government coexisted with each other and competed for legitimacy. Lenin argued that this essentially unstable situation constituted a unique opportunity for the Soviets to seize power by smashing the Provisional Government and establishing themselves as the basis of a new form of state power. This notion has informed the strategies of subsequent communist-led revolutions, including the Chinese Revolution led by Mao and the Cuban Revolution led by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

Recently the concept of "Dual Power" has taken on an even broader meaning in the hands of anarchists who use it to refer to the concept of revolution through the creation of "counter-institutions" in place of and in opposition to state power. The occurrence of a society-wide dynamic that facilitates a counter-institution to openly compete with a status quo institution for dominance. For example, if cooperative food markets were able to compete on an even-level with corporate grocery store chains, dual power would be achieved in the domain of food. A popular concept within certain anarchist circles.

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