Lenin was acutely conscious of the dangers of parliamentary cretinism: socialists treating parliament as the primary arena of struggle and subordinating everything to its priorities. This would bend socialists’ politics towards compromise with capitalism and also their practical orientation to parliamentary manoeuvring. He was equally alert to the problem of voter fetishism: voters mistakenly thinking the vote is an exercise of power, when in fact power in a capitalist society is collective, social and located largely outside the parliamentary realm. Elections had a place, but they were no substitute for mass working-class action in the workplaces, streets and squares. Ultimately power must be wrested from the capitalist class in revolution. Source