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SOCI 230 Classical Social Theory > Marx MOP > Flashcards

Marx MOP Flashcards

1
Q

What is the definition of MOP?

A

Social Organization of economic activity

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2
Q

Which concept does Mark disprove?

A

Classical political economy, which states that markets are separate from society

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3
Q

During Primitive Communalism, when there was only pre-class systems, what did not exist?

A

Social classes, private property, and the state

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4
Q

What was the relationship between primitive communalism and surplus?

A

There was little or no surplus produced during this time because of the limits on the forces of production

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5
Q

What was the society of primitive communalism described as?

A

A society dominated by nature, people adapted to nature and often lived on the edge of scarcity (people consumed all that they produced)

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6
Q

What is primitive communalism characterized as?

A

Hunting & Gathering and early horticultural

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7
Q

What was the first mode of production called and how did it emerge?

A

Ancient Society and it emerged after society began to produce surplus

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8
Q

What effect did surplus have on Ancient Society’s class structure?

A

The production of surplus created the historical conditions for the first class structure (master-slave).

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9
Q

What did the production of surplus create?

A

Class structure and condition for the first state

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10
Q

What is an example of states in Ancient Society?

A

The Holy Roman Empire in Rome

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11
Q

What was the purpose of wealth in ancient societies?

A

It was not valued to accumulate but for demonstrating status and private enjoyment.

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12
Q

What contradictions in the MOP led to the Ancient Society’s downfall?

A

A large military, supporting an extensive bureaucracy, and status

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13
Q

How did the military maintain the empire?

A

They had to conquer lands and protect the expanding borders of the empire

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14
Q

What did the bureaucracy do for the state?

A

It extracted wealth and returned it to the state by controlling other societies

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15
Q

How was status viewed?

A

Status was closely associated with leisure and labor was viewed with contempt.

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16
Q

What was the issue with the way status is viewed?

A

To increase their status the privileged class demanded more slaves and servants so there were 10 times as many slaves as citizens

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17
Q

What led to the downfall of the ancient society?

A

The privileged class pressure the state to produce more surplus to increase status and satisfy consumption habits. But to increase surplus, the state had to increase the size of the army to conquer other societies and gather more slaves. This led to consumption exceeding production.

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18
Q

What does consumption exceeding production mean in relation the the Ancient society’s downfall?

A

The Roman society could no longer produce enough to conquer other societies, maintain the bureaucracy, and it could no longer support the military to protect its borders.

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19
Q

What occured because the society could no longer support the military?

A

They lost protection on their borders and were invaded by Barbarians

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20
Q

What type of society formed after ancient society?

A

Feudal societies (feudalism), local bureaucrats and military formed communities that developed a different hierarchy.

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21
Q

What was the hierarchy like in feudal society?

A

Upper class nobility was employed as military (Knights) and the lower class was made of serfs

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22
Q

What were the social structural sources of stability?

A

Economy and superstructure

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23
Q

The economy during feudalism is described as homage, what does this mean?

A

Serfs/peasants had an obligation to meet certain economic demands of the nobility. In exchange for use of land and protection, serfs were required to give a portion of their production to the nobility.

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24
Q

Describe the superstructure (state and ideology).

A

The State: Controlled by the upper class that used the military (local nobility, eventually a national monarch)
The ideology: Using prevailing ideas of Christianity to legitimize secular hierarchy. God created the earth including the hierarchy that places the Pope at the top who is God’s representative on earth.

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25
Q

What did the catholic church prohibit?

A

Usury, which means making money from money

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26
Q

How did Feudalism transition to capitalism?

A

1.) Some serf gained freedom by becoming traders and therefore creating a barter system.
2.) Mercantile Capitalism was born. A new class of merchants was created.
3.) Industrial Capitalism occurs because merchants invest and establish factories
4.) The dominant economic class becomes the dominant political class

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27
Q

What are the characteristics of Mercantile Capitalism?

A

Merchants committed usury, there was contradiction between the structure and superstructure, the major consumers were those with money (rich selling to rich)

28
Q

What happened in the church that contributed to the spread of capitalism?

A

The Pope redefined usury.

29
Q

What is the definition of industrial capitalism?

A

A time when merchants accumulated wealth and invested in and established factories to produce goods.
The transition from making profits from trade to the commodity system where an article is produced for exchange/sale.

30
Q

What occurred after the transition to industrial capitalism?

A

The emergence of a new class that has control over the most efficient means of production and is able to create the most surplus

31
Q

What was the purpose of controlling factories in capitalist societies and controlling land in feudal societies?

A

To produce more surplus

32
Q

What did the final stage to the transition to capitalism look like in France and England?

A

France’s transition was violent because of the French Revolution.
England had mostly nonviolent legal changes.

33
Q

What were England’s nonviolent legal changes?

A

Suffrage Laws (rights to vote) and they also eliminated the Corn laws

34
Q

What were the Corn Laws?

A

They imposed tarriffs on imported grains.

35
Q

What did the Corn Laws do for the economy?

A

Reduced capital accumulation opportunities for landholding capitalists and increased capital accumulation opportunities for industrial capitalists.

36
Q

What did the elimination of the Corn Laws symbolize?

A

It symbolized the transformation from the agricultural to industrialist and entrepreneurs as the dominant capitalist class fraction.

37
Q

What were the two characteristics of the new dominant class (industrial capitalists)?

A

They were economically dominant and politically dominant

38
Q

What does it mean to be economically dominant?

A

They controlled the more efficient means of production.

39
Q

What does it mean to be politically dominant?

A

It refers to the final stage in the transition to a new mode of production, when the state passed laws that advanced the economic interest of the dominant economic class (repealling the corn laws)

40
Q

What were the class distinctions based on?

A

Ownership of the means of production or lack thereof

41
Q

What were the two main classes?

A

The capitalist property owning class and the proletariat (the propertyless working class)

42
Q

What were the enclosure acts and what did they do?

A

They were laws passed on to the privatized public lands, which forced peasants to move to urban areas and sell their labor power.

43
Q

What was Marx’s definition of property?

A

The ownership of the means of production (tools, machinery, or factories) or property that is used for production of commodities that are sold in the market

44
Q

What were the two stages of capitalism?

A

Mercantile capitalism and Industrial Capitalism

45
Q

What is the first stage characterized by?

A

Characterized as the expansion of trade

46
Q

What was the second stage characterized by?

A

The commodity system or the production of goods for sale (cottage industries or factories)

47
Q

Why did industrial capitalism expand globally?

A

Because markets needed to obtain raw materials and sell commodities that originated in other countries.

48
Q

What are two outcomes of the historical process (transition to capitalism)?

A

Centralization and concentration of ownership among the capitalist class

49
Q

What is the definition of concentration of capital?

A

Growth of value of each firm as a result of accumulation (profits and reinvestments)

50
Q

What is the definition of centralization?

A

The fusion of different capitals under a single command (mergers or acquistions)

51
Q

When does centralization occur?

A

It occurs when firms near bankruptcy and are purchased by other larger firms.

52
Q

When do both centralization and concentration of capital occur?

A

During periods of slow economic growth (recessions or depressions)

53
Q

When does concentration of capital occur?

A

When the economy emerges from downturns and fewer company remain to reap profits (capital accumulation)

54
Q

What is the superstructure’s dominant ideology in capitalist societies?

A

Capitalist societies are associated with the emergence and expansion of liberal ideology and Civil Laws to guarantee individual rights. This was supported and perpetrated by the dominant class.

55
Q

Why were economic injustices not recognized?

A

Because the liberal ideas of individuality (individual freedom) concealed the injustices.

56
Q

What was the state like in the capitalist superstrucutre?

A

Political organization are based on ideals of democracy, which justified the ideology of individual rights in the market.

57
Q

What did the capitalist class try to do to accumulate capital and maintain profits?

A

1.) Exercise control over the work process to extract as much labor as possible from the labor power they purchased
2.) Depress wages (low wages means higher profits)

58
Q

What are the contradictory dimensions of depressing wages (both lead to lower profits)?

A

1.) Low wages undermine workers capacity to consume, which results in lower demand, less production, and lower profit levels
2.) When wages drop to an unacceptable level, the working classes attempt to organize politically to improve working condition and increase their wages

59
Q

What is another crisis that occurs in capitalism?

A

Overproduction and underconsumption

60
Q

What happens before, during, and after overproduction and underconsumption?

A

1.) Individual capitalist increase production in order to make more profits
2.) Overtime, expansion of production capacity to realize higher profits exceed society’s consumption capacity
3.) The rate of profits declines
4.) Workers are laid off declining the economy as a whole
5.) Capitalists cannot overcome the crisis
6.) The state intervenes by developing policies to stimulate economic growth

61
Q

How can the state intervene in the economy to restore equilibrium and aid growth?

A

1.) The state will develop policies to maintain economic growth, which will maintain class structure and save their own positions of power.
2.) The state mediates class conflict by enacting policies to resolve conflict between classes. (EX: New Deal satisfying workers).
3.) The state is a mechanism to overcome periodic crisis of overproduction and underconsumption

62
Q

What are some examples of incremental changes that occured in response to political pressure from the capitalist class?

A

1.) Enacting laws to weaken organized labor
2.) Providing capital to corporations to develop new technology to increase productivity
3.) The government itself conducts or supports innovation that increases productivity

63
Q

Do crisis like overproduction and underconsumption represent a breakdown of the capitalist system?

A

No

64
Q

What are these crisis doing for the system?

A

They are regulatory mechanisms that enable the system to survive the periodic fluctuations

65
Q

What would need to happen so that the MOP will change?

A

The crisis would become so extreme that the state would not be able to resolve it.

66
Q

What is the main axis in which political power is distributed and political power depends?

A

Class relations

67
Q

Again, which class becomes the dominant class?

A

The new dominant class will be the dominant economic and political class and they will pressure the state to enact laws that benefit them.

SOCI 230 Classical Social Theory (13 decks)

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