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SOCI 331 > M2: Marx > Flashcards

M2: Marx Flashcards

1
Q

What was Marx’s overall goal with his sociology of capitalism?

A

-to critique capitalism

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2
Q

What did Marx describe capitalism as?

A

-form of economic enterprise and a type of society

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3
Q

What were the two essential elements of economic enterprise?

A
  • capital

- wage labor

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4
Q

What did Marx describe capital as?

A

-any asset that can be used to secure further assets

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5
Q

What did Marx mean by a ‘type of society’ in his definition of capitalism?

A

-capitalism is defined by a class society based on the relationship between capital and wage labor

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6
Q

What are class relations?

A
  • relations of conflict or struggle

- they link economic relations to other institutions

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7
Q

What did Marx equate a sociology of capitalism to?

A

-analysis of class structure

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8
Q

What were the core ideas (6) of Marx’s analysis of class structure?

A
  • relations of production
  • concept of class
  • polarization thesis
  • social superstructure
  • theory of surplus value
  • pauperization thesis
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9
Q

What are the characteristics of Marx’s relations of production?

A
  • people must produce in order to develop capabilities and power as well as survive
  • people always produce as members of a specific type of society (not as individuals)
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10
Q

Under the relations of production definition what is every society founded on?

A

Definite set of relations of production;

  • in order to produce people must enter into social relations
  • these social relations are related to class
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11
Q

no

A

no

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12
Q

How does Marx define classes?

A
  • defined by relationship to the means (forces) of production
  • social classes are economic and founded on a material basis
  • BUT classes are also defined by a social relationship
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13
Q

What are the means of production under Marx’s definition of classes?

A

-Things you use in order to produce, raw materials etc.

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14
Q

What is this ‘social relationship’ under Marx’s definition of classes?

A

-property (legal right over material object enforced by state)

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15
Q

What, under Marx’s concepts of classes, does every society have?

A

A distinct form/system of;

  • economic production and property
  • classes
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16
Q

What was the main form of property in capitalist societies?

A

-capital

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17
Q

How are capitalist classes defined?

A
  • groups of individuals defined by their relationship to ownership of private property in the means of production
  • dichotomous in principle
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18
Q

Why are classes dichotomous in principle?

A

-because 3 classes didn’t fit into either capitalist or workers, they were transitioning to them

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19
Q

What were the 3 exceptions to the dichotomous principle?

A
  • groups who played a major role in political and economic institutions but are marginal (peasants that own their own land)
  • groups who are dependent on and identify politically with one of the 2 classes (high managerial worker)
  • lumpen proletariat who are not fully integrated into one class (thieves, homeless people)
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20
Q

How does Marx answer to the ‘in theory’ dichotomous class problem?

A
  • with his notion of polarization

- as capitalism develops this will simplify

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21
Q

How does Marx characterize capitalist society?

A
  • analyzing its class relations

- locating its institutions in either the base or superstructure and specifying the relationship between the two

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22
Q

What are the institutions in the base?

A

-economic institutions

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23
Q

What are institutions in the superstructure?

A

-political, legal, educational etc.

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24
Q

What does Marx define as the base?

A

-forces (means) of production and relations of production

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25
Q

What does Marx define as the superstructure?

A

-rest of social institutions in a society

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26
Q

What is the primary link between the base and the superstructure according to Marx?

A

-role of classes

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27
Q

What does Marx mean in his quote, “The ruling ideals are the ideals of the ruling class?”

A
  • the base exists to legitimize interests of ruling class
  • everyone in a capitalist society believes this is the way things should be
  • capitalists don’t have to use force
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28
Q

What inspired Marx to come up with his Surplus value theory?

A

-to show how the exploitation of workers occurred

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29
Q

What question does Marx’s theory of Surplus value answer?

A

-where do profits come from?

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30
Q

Why does Marx focus on profits in his theory of Surplus value?

A

-the pursuit of profit is intrinsic to capitalism

31
Q

What makes a commodity valuable?

A

Two analytical separable values:

  • use value
  • exchange value
32
Q

What is use-value?

A
  • the need the commodity was created to satisfy

- all products have use value

33
Q

What is exchange value?

A
  • unique to commodity production
  • only find exchange values when you find capitalism
  • value when offered for other products
34
Q

What are commodities?

A

-products only made for exchange value on the market

35
Q

Does the exchange of the commodities relate to their use-value?

A

-`no, it is independent of their use

36
Q

Can you determine exchange value through use value?

A

No

37
Q

What does determine exchange value?

A

-the labor time it takes to produce

38
Q

Why is exchange value measured through labor?

A
  • Marx believed labor to be an intrinsic part of human nature
  • you give something to the product through your labor
39
Q

Why isn’t the slowest worker the most valuable then?

A

-not focusing on individual workers but the total expenditure or socially necessary labor time

40
Q

Define socially necessary labor time

A
  • time required to produce a commodity under normal conditions
  • an average degree of skill and intensity
41
Q

Where does Marx argue profits come from?

A
  • workers produce more in a day then is needed to satisfy their everyday expenses i.e. surplus value
  • what is produced over and above what is required for workers daily profit
42
Q

What is labor power?

A

-exchange value of a workers labor power

43
Q

Who takes the surplus value?

A

-capitalists use this to make a profit

44
Q

What struggle occurs over surplus value?

A

-struggle between capitalists and workers

45
Q

What is Pauperization?

A
  • group of chronically unemployed individuals
  • necessary for capitalism
  • called the industrial reserve army
46
Q

What is the role of the industrial reserve army?

A
  • keep wages low
  • fill increased demands for labor during prosperity keeping wages down
  • ensures workers are replaceable
47
Q

How does Pauperization help capitalist development?

A
  • increasing disparity between workers wage and capitalists profits
  • growing reserve army living in extreme poverty
48
Q

What is Marx’s theory of historical materialism about?

A

-reconstruction of the history of the human species

49
Q

Why did Marx come up with his theory on historical materialism?

A

-wanted to make a scientific account of social change

50
Q

What was Marx’s point of departure for his historical materialist theory?

A

-labor and mode of production

51
Q

What two modes of production are there?

A
  • forces (means) of production

- relations of production

52
Q

What did Weber use to understand Marx’s social change theory?

A

-Weber’s critique on transition from feudalism to capitalism

53
Q

What was Marx’s theory of historical materialism?

A
  • history is a coherent process with an order to its development other then chronology
  • social change is a deterministic causal sequence
  • divides human history into modes of production
54
Q

What modes of production did Marx outline in his theory of historical materialism?

A

-tribal to ancient to feudal to capitalist to socialist mode of production

55
Q

How did Marx explain the movement between stages

A

-thesis to antithesis to synthesis

56
Q

How did Marx define a society as one of the modes of production?

A

-was defined by the relationships between the people that worked

57
Q

Did Marx believe these modes of production were for only one society?

A

-no he believed they were universal

58
Q

What did the quote, “Each societal type contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction and the motive force for movement to a higher stage,” mean

A

-the dialect between the forces and relations of production would cause each society to change into the next type

59
Q

What was thesis stage?

A

-the forces and relations of production are working together

60
Q

What is the antithesis stage?

A
  • change in forces of production so that they come into conflict with the relations of production
  • conflict inhibits economic expansion causing a revolution
61
Q

What is synthesis stage?

A

-relations and forces are working together but are new types of both

62
Q

How does thesis, antithesis and synthesis relate to base and superstructure?

A

-we have a change in the base with a change in the superstructure following

63
Q

What was the mode of production in a feudal society?

A

-agrarian societies of the European middle ages

64
Q

What was the primary productive property in feudal societies?

A

-land with labourers legally bound to it

65
Q

Why do there have to be at least 3 classes in all other types of societies beside capitalism?

A

-capitalism is classified by being a single class division thus every other society must have at least 3 classes

66
Q

Who was the ruling class under feudalism?

A

-land owning aristocracy

67
Q

What were Serf workers in feudalism?

A
  • workers that generally have a lot of control of the products they produced
  • worked on land and were legally bound to land owned by lord
68
Q

What was a key factor in the transition from a feudal society to a capitalist society?

A

-Serf workers became wage labourers

69
Q

What were the 3 main changes in the transition from Serf to wage labourer?

A
  • separation from capital to landed property via growth of towns
  • formation of special classes of merchants
  • money reduces human qualities to exchange value
70
Q

What were the special classes of merchants?

A
  • mercantile capital (trade)
  • usures capital (interest)
  • money (store of wealth)
71
Q

What does ‘free wage earners’ mean?

A

-free in sense of free from feudal ties and obligations

72
Q

When did Marx think the transition from capitalism to socialism would occur?

A
  • he thought he was living close to it

- he lived in England

73
Q

Under Weber’s interpretation was is a historical necessity?

A
  • revolution

- when antithesis occurs

74
Q

How did Scholars argue that Marx was still right since capitalism to socialism hasn’t happened?

A
  • working class does not see capitalism for what it is
  • working class is a class ‘in itself’
  • must become workers united, ‘a class for itself’
  • false conscious

SOCI 331 (11 decks)

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