regulate state power by getting officials to abide by law, but do not try to limit the state's actual powers. Marxism-Leninism holds that the material base, encompassing the economy and nature, shapes the superstructure, which includes the socio-political system and human culture. Marxism holds that the state and laws it issues are a tool of the ruling class that uses them for its own material interests, and Vladimir Lenin reconfirmed this thesis after gaining