"""The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." Is this generally true? ""

As
others have pointed out, Marx is arguing that the state apparatus exists merely to satisfy the
bourgeoisie, Marx's word for the ruling and materialistic middle class. I do not think that this
is a question that can be simply answered as true or not true, but certainly the answer changes
depending on what country one is talking about.

Certainly it is true in the
United States that many laws and regulations benefit the upper middle class, and that
increasingly the lower middle and the "middle" middle classes have been neglected by
the state. However, there are also government programs put in place to help the lower and
working classes - what Marx would call the proletariat - such as welfare and unemployment funds.

I would argue that no state apparatus - at least in the developed world -
exists only to satisfy the bourgeoisie, although there is certainly a case
to be made that the bourgeoisie benefit from most of the state's policies in some countries.
Many would argue (correctly in my...