Marxism

Question 1

What are conflict theories?

Answer 1

Theories that see society as being made up of two or more groups with competing and incompatible interests. The two main conflict theories are Marxism and Feminism, looking at the divisions of social class and gender respectively. Interactionism, another theory, recognizes conflict in society but does not view society as being fundamentally based on one conflict.

Question 2

Who was Karl Marx?

Answer 2

A German philosopher, economist, journalist, sociologist and communist who developed one of the most influential theoretical frameworks of social sciences - it was based on his critique of capitalism, the economic system of the industrialized Western world. Not only did he analyze and describe the capitalist society, he also was a political activist and wanted a proletariat (communist) revolution against the bourgeoisie. He believed that society was in a constant state of conflict between the bourgeoisie (the rich) and the proletariat (the poor)

Question 3

Why did he critique capitalism?

Answer 3

• Despite the huge industrial development during Marx’s life, he observed that it was also creating unprecedented poverty and a society divided with a fundamental conflict based on social class. He believed this conflict would eventually destroy the thing that created it with a Communist Revolution. it showed the exploitation of the proletariat, the working class, by the bourgeoisie, the ruling class.

Question 4

The exploitive nature of work in a Capitalist society

Answer 4

• For Marx, the bourgeoisie, the ruling class, who owned the means of production, employed the proletariat, the working class to produce the items the bourgeoisie then sold. Because the purpose of a capitalist enterprise is to make a profit, the workers are never paid for the real value of their work. Marx believed this surplus value of profit was essentially theft, and this created what was to him and exploitative relationship that left most people poor.

Question 5

Marxism and conflict

Answer 5

• Marx believed that there is little consensus in society; two main classes in a capitalist society have entirely opposing interests. It is in the interest of the bourgeoisie to pay their workers as little as possible in order to make maximum profit. It is in the interest of the proletariat to earn as much as possible.
• Contradiction also exists in a capitalist society, as the workers are also the customers, and so by making them poor a ‘crisis’ is created where the economy collapses (recessions and depressions). A particularly deep version of this would create a final crisis to trigger a communist revolution and there is continued debate on what extent Marx thought this to be inevitable.

Question 6

Traditional Marxists and their thoughts

Answer 6

They note that the proletariat, despite being exploited by the upper class, mostly accept the bourgeois rule, considering it to be normal, unavoidable and sometimes desirable. They argue this happens because the bourgeoisie transmit their ideology through ideological state apparatuses which lead to workers not having class consciousness, and instead taking on the bourgeoisie ideology. This leads to them having a false view of their own position in society (false class consciousness) as a revolution from the proletariat due to class consciousness would be controlled by the repressive state apparatus (military or police)

Question 7

Key Marxist concepts - Bourgeoisie and Proletariat

Answer 7

Bourgeoisie - Ruling class eg: Factory owners
Proletariat - Workers

Question 8

Key Marxist concepts - Means and Modes of production

Answer 8

Means of production - factories, mines etc
Mode of production - workers skills

Question 9

Key Marxist concepts - Ideology and State Apparatuses

Answer 9

Ideology - belief
Ideological state apparatuses - the methods used to make us think in a particular way eg: media
Repressive state apparatuses - police or army

Question 10

Key Marxist Concepts - Class consciousness

Answer 10

Class consciousness - being aware of one’s own class (becoming conscious of one’s own social class and how it is treated in the class system.)
False class consciousness - misguided view of one’s own class

Question 11

Marxism - the basics

Answer 11

Believe that different groups within society have very different interests - conflict is common and persistent as a feature of society, with the powerful imposing group being the bourgeoisie, the upper class who own the means of production, marginalizing the modes of production provided by the proletariat. Social institutions work to maintain the bourgeoisie and the capitalist system, and to keep the proletariat as poor workers unable to socially mobilize.

Question 12

The Marxist ideology

Answer 12

Despises capitalism as it is believed to create conflict in society between the competing interests of the two main classes - as a structural approach, the main focus is on how the social institutions and agents of socialization create the negative society to keep the people in their ascribed status and position.

Question 13

Louis Althusser

Answer 13

• Termed the idea of the bourgeoisie using ideological state apparatuses such as education and media to transmit the bourgeois ideology and therefore create a false class consciousness for the proletariat, where they consider it to be normal, unavoidable or even desirable; this helps the bourgeoisie to protect and maintain the systems that benefit them, with the proletariat unknowingly maintaining the systems that trap them.
• Repressive state apparatuses are used to enforce the systems in society when revolution is hinted at, such as use of police force to control the proletariat. Without true class consciousness, the crisis cycle of capitalism won’t be broken and the communist revolution Marx advocated will not come about.

Question 14

Key terms in Marxism

Answer 14

• Means of production - All the things needed to produce goods eg: land, factories, labour power
• Relations of production - The class system - relationships between those in control and workers
• Superstructure - Society’s social institutions eg: family, education etc. This is determined by the economic base
• Economic base - This includes the means and relations of production - these are the foundation of all modern capitalist societies
• Dominant ideology - The main beliefs of a society eg: capitalism is right and fair
• False consciousness - Lack of awareness that one is being exploited
• Epochs - periods in history relating to different means of production in society
• Ideology - a set of beliefs
• Alienation -
• Polarisation -
• Pauperisation -
• Proletarianisation -

Types of Marxism:
- Karl Marx -> Historical / materialist/ traditional Marxism

Question 15

The theories of Karl Marx - a summary

Answer 15

• Believed capitalism has serious flaws, and in pursuit of profit they would push an ideology of materialism making people happy, and condemning leisure and saying work was for the best - this created inequality in the class system, depriving them of job satisfaction (alienation of working class) and exploiting the working class
• Laid out a vision of Marxist society with public ownership of property, free education and equal distribution of wealth
• Basis for communism in an equal and stateless society - impoverished people and was not beneficial because it was too idealistic
• Relevance - his predictions about capitalism have been proven correct, in widening wealth gaps (poorest half of the world have less wealth than 42 of the richest people), leading to globalisation (handful of firms dominating the market) and creating boom and bust economics (Great Depression, Hyperinflation, 2008 Financial Crisis), with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer
• However, he underestimate the ability of capitalism to make people richer by making products cheaper, with the amount of people in absolute poverty decreasing by 1 billion people since 1980
• He also did not realise the capabilities of capitalism to create welfare states and institutions such as the NHS as a way to distribute wealth to the people in other ways
• His solution was worse than the issue, but he was correct about the issue

Question 16

The superstructure and the economic base - How did Marx explain society?

Answer 16

• The superstructure and economic base act in a cyclic relationship; the superstructure, consisting of institutions such as religion, mass media, family, education and politics and the economic base consisting of relations of production (bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat) and means of production (the things you need to produce; machines, factories, lands and materials owned by the bourgeoisie)
• The economic base helps to shape the superstructure as the production establishes the institution and the bourgeoisie builds on the economic base they create through the proletariat
• The superstructure in turns maintains and legitimises the economic base, by creating a series of ISA’s and RSA’s that create a false class consciousness using the bourgeois ideology which allows the proletariat to continually be exploited and alienated from their work without any way of correcting the power of the ruling class

Question 17

The traditional Marxist explanation of society - Karl Marx; How he explained society through the model through epochs and the development of classes

Answer 17

• Marx identified history could be divided into 5 periods or epochs, distinguished by more complex economic arrangements.
• All societies are said to have begun with ‘primitive communism’ - simple societies, with no concept of private property and engaging in sharing (1). It then passes through ancient societies (2), feudalist systems of the medieval times (3) until it reaches the crucial stage of capitalism (4) and finally reaching the communist epoch in history (5); the current society reflects the 4th epoch.
• A theoretical model was developed by Marx which assigned a particular mode of production to each epoch; a mode of production refers to a complete economic and social system with each epoch being characterised by and based on a different way of organising production of goods
• In the epoch of primitive communism, production is based on hunting and gathering and without surplus, there is no class system
• In all other modes of production, until modern communism is established, sees society based around the exploitation of one class by another (e.g. feudal system exploits serfs who have to surrender some of their produce to their masters, and in capitalism it is the bourgeoisie exploiting the working class
• Classes develop because some people are able to gain ownership and control over the means of production; these are what is needed to produce goods and use the modes of production which wealth comes from, including land, raw materials, machinery, labour power and in capitalism the money needed to finance production (capital). In non-communist society, one class owns or controls the means of production and the other class is forced to work for them as they cannot create the wealth themselves

Question 18

The traditional Marxist view of society - Karl Marx; the foundations of society and the economic theory

Answer 18

• The foundations of society is the economic system or economic base, which consists of the means of production and the class system or the relations of production.
• The ruling class owns the means of production and this ruling class constructs a whole set of social relationships that benefit them and allow them to exploit all others who do not share in the ownership of the means of production.
• Economic theory - The means of production are always advancing, becoming more complex and capable of producing greater wealth, as nothing can stop this outward march of technology
• The values created by the ruling class allow benefits to themselves and slow this march, and at the start of each epoch the ruling class help technology progress, but they then get in the way of its progress and impede it.
• This causes a rise in a new, challenging group with values and ideas that would help means of production advance, and after conflict, they gain control of society and begin to create new relations of production. This causes a new epoch to begin and the process starts once more.

Question 19

The traditional Marxist view of society - Karl Marx; The capitalist belief system

Answer 19

• Marx believed society had reached the stage of capitalism, and the majority of his work was about the capitalist stage and the factors that would lead to a communist epoch. Within capitalism exists a bourgeoisie (ruling class) that owns property, industry and commerce, and the proletariat work for a wage and no matter their pay, they are considered in this working class.
• The petite bourgeoisie, who consist of the self-employed and those with small businesses, who have enough capital to have their own business but not enough to exploit and employ others on a large scale.
• The petite bourgeoisie do find it hard to compete with big businesses of the bourgeoisie, and they are often forced out of business eventually becoming wage workers in the proletariat. This process is known as proletarianisation.
• The bourgeoisie promotes a set of distorted beliefs that support their interests by helping to maintain their wealth and power, and these self-interested and distorted beliefs are the ideology of capitalism, which supports the view that enormous inequalities in society between the rich and poor are fair and reasonable
• Marxists argue this is unfair, unreasonable and derive from the exploitation of workers

Question 20

How did Marx explain society - traditional Marxism and the false class consciousness

Answer 20

• The owners of the economic structure are able to control society and construct values and social relationships that reflect their own interests, and as others in society who are less powerful generally accept these values and relationships even if they are not in their interests.
• The majority of the population accept the inequalities of the system because of dominant institutions legitimising and justifying the economic and social situation Marx called this majority as suffering a false class consciousness as they do not realise their interests as a class lie in changing society rather than allowing continued class dominance
• Over time, Marx argued that capitalism will enter periods of crises which will progressively get worse, which have a range of causes - capitalists will drive down wages to increase profit, causing the W/C to become poor; known as pauperisation - the rich will continue to accumulate wealth, causing a polarisation between the poor masses and the bourgeoisie making class divisions stark and obvious
• Some members of the proletariat begin to realise that they are being exploited and believe that it is necessary to overthrow capitalism to end their own exploitation and so they develop ‘class consciousness’ to see through the distorted bourgeois ideology
• Class consciousness manifests itself through strikes and political protest, examples of class conflict, and eventually a small minority of very rich capitalists and a huge majority of relatively poor people, radical or revolutionary change is inevitable and this will cause the final epoch of communism to arrive

Question 21

Historic Marxism - Epochs and proletarianisation

Answer 21

What evidence is there for the theory of epochs?
- Primitive communism -> slavery / ancient societies -> feudalism -> capitalism -> communism

What evidence is there for currently being in the capitalist state?
- Capitalism now because -> false class consciousness, proletariat and bourgeoisie, in which social control enforces the class gap, and the bourgeoisie create minimum wages and the richest 11 people have more wealth than the poorest half of the world illustrate a wealth gap from industrialization

What evidence is there for proletarianisation?
- Proletarianisation -> COVID-19 and highstreet decrease, and this shows how small businesses cannot compete with big businesses as the petite bourgeoisie are forced to become proletariats as they cannot grow their business to bourgeoisie level

Question 22

Historic Marxism - Pauperisation

Answer 22

What evidence is there for pauperisation?
- Pauperisation is a process in capitalist society in which the rich manipulate taxes and wages in order to accumulate wealth from the proletariat, resulting in a bourgeoisie that increases their wealth further and a proletariat who become steadily poorer. This reinforces the social imbalance between the social classes.
- Evidence of this can be seen in periods of hyperinflation and high levels of unemployment, such as in the recent cost of living crisis, in which wages fail to match the price of goods and services, leading to groups in precarious socio-economic conditions to become even more impoverished. However, the bourgeoisie remain largely unaffected, as taxes are usually of an equal nature and so the rich are taxed the same as the poor (£400 package
and 2% increase is the same for all classes) resulting in a disproportionately affected and unsupported lower class.

Evidence for alienation:
- 9-5 job gives no satisfaction

Why are there no revolutions?
- Repressive state apparatus and ideological state apparatus

Question 23

How Marx explained society - a summary (traditional marxists = money)

Answer 23

• According to Historic Marxist theory, all humans have material needs such as food, clothing, shelter and they must work to meet these. The ‘economic base’ is what determines all of society because it consists of the means and relations of production. The means of production are elements such as land, factories and raw materials. The relations of production describes how those who work in society operate eg: as slaves or paid.
• The economic base determines the ‘superstructure’ or our institutions. The role of the superstructure is to justify and reproduce the inequality that exists within the capitalist system through the promotion of false consciousness.
• Marx argued the only way to escape the exploitation by the bourgeoisie was for a revolution to overthrow the bourgeoisie leading to a fairer system: communism. This could occur through a class consciousness whereby the proletariat ‘wake up’ to their exploitation because of the constant driving down of wages or ‘pauperisation’ showing how different the rich and poor have become.

Question 24

Strengths of Marx’s explanation

Answer 24

• Economy - recognises its importance in modern society
• Focus on ownership - explains inequalities in wealth
• Importance of social structure
• Still influential

Question 25

Criticisms of Marx’s explanation

Answer 25

Economic determinism
- A move towards crisis hasn’t occurred. Communists systems have largely been replaced by capitalist ones, or at least adopted many of their ideas.
- Humans also have free will
- Ideas can cause change - not just economics

Polarisation (lack of revolution)
- Although there is huge inequality the expansion of the middle class is in conflict with Marx’s prediction that this group would disappear

Outdated
- Since Marx’s death capitalism changed a lot and incorporated a range of benefits for populations such as health care, pensions and housing support.

Too simplistic
- Ignores other factors such as gender and ethnicity
- Two class model - there are a range within class groups

Question 26

Gramsci’s theories - hegemony (humanistic marxism / neo-marxism / structural marxism)

Answer 26

• This concept states that the dominance in society of the ruling class ideology and acceptance of and consent to by the rest of society happens through a set of universal ideologies
• Hegemonic beliefs refer to political and moral beliefs that are transmitted through institutions and ensure people hold the views of society that the ruling class require of their workers in a capitalist society
• Voluntarism refers to the working class accepting the ruling class ideology, and the fact that we could choose to fight back but do not is evidence of alienation and a dual consciousness

Ruling class dominance is maintained by -
1) Coercion - the use of the army, police and over government agencies to force other class to accept the ruling class ideology
2) Consent - uses ideas and values to persuade the other classes that ruling class ideology is legitimate

Ruling class hegemony is never complete because -
1) Ruling class are the minority - to maintain their rule, they must create a power bloc (alliances) with other groups such as the middle class
2) Duel consciousness - working class can see through the dominant ideology to a certain extent , and they are influenced by the bourgeoisie ideas but also by material conditions

Question 27

Gramsci - organic intellectuals and how he solves the criticisms of Marx (humanistic)

Answer 27

• Organic intellectuals are class conscious workers who organise themselves into a revolutionary political party who will help to create counter hegemony
• They can only win the battle of ideas by producing their own ‘counter-hegemony’ to win people over from the ruling class hegemony. To do this, Gramsci argued for the production of working class Proletarian intellectuals; Greta Thunberg, Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Stonewall etc all caused mini-revolutions to alter the hegemony without wrecking societal structures
• In order for socialism to occur, counter hegemony created by the working class needs to occur to overthrow the cultural hegemony of the working class

Criticisms of Marx solved by Gramsci -
- Tries to deal with the criticism that Marxism ignores the role of ideas in social change and that individuals are passive puppets; gets rid of economic determinism (the idea that money controls all, traditional) by emphasising ideology as a humanistic marxist
- Dual consciousness exists due to bourgeoisie concessions, which explains polarisation (lack of revolutions)
- Ruling class have to work hard to maintain hegemony, which removes the simplicity of Marx’s explanation and means that the theory remains relevant to today’s society

Question 28

Althusser - structural neo-marxism

Answer 28

• Repressive and Ideological state apparatus
  3 levels of structural determinism, the idea that structures determine actions and the formation of a capitalist society:
  1) Economic level - all activities which produce something to meet a need, and dominates capitalism
  2) Political level - all forms of organisation including RSA’s which coerce workers into the false class consciousness
  3) Ideological level - the ways people see themselves and the world, including ISAs which socialise and manipulate people into the FCC
• Relative autonomy refers to partial autonomy from the economic level - this means that the political and ideological levels are more than a reflection of the economic level, and instead have 2 way causality
• The economic level dominates in capitalism but the other two are indispensable and all three reinforce one another

Question 29

How useful is Marxism in helping us understand society today? - evaluating neo-marxism and structural marxism

Answer 29

Humanistic Neo - (its about individuals)
- Under emphasize the role of coercive political and economic forces in holding back the formation of a counter hegemonic bloc; workers for example may be unable to form revolutionary vanguards because of the threat of state violence

Structural Neo - (its about structures)
- Replaces economic determinism with a more complex system
- Discourages political activism by suggesting individuals can do little to change society
- Ignores examples of working class struggles in changing society by instead suggesting it is through political and ideological change because of the economy
- Thompson - Althusser is elitist and suggest people follow the communist party blindly

Question 30

Relevance of Marxism by concept

Answer 30

• Marxist approaches are relevant because alienation is still experienced in 9-5 jobs; in particular, education costs keep people in jobs they do not enjoy in order to fund a lifestyle, and people are alienated from their jobs through lack of promotion etc
• False class consciousness - less relevant, figures such as Greta Thunberg who act as organic intellectuals create a dual consciousness which has elements of the FCC but it has evolved, especially with curriculum teaching of Marxist ideas and the issues of capitalism, which further cements Gramsci’s theories of hegemony
• Dual consciousness - creation of counter-hegemony through individuals like the Suffragettes (Emmeline Pankhurst), Nelson Mandela, Stonewall riots, Martin Luther King Jr change the shape of society as organic intellectuals
• Structural determinism - relevant as most things in society are still done for a reason, RSA’s with protest shutdowns; ISA’s are different because they are changing to purposefully create a dual consciousness rather than a FCC (BLM, #MeToo), evidence for all the levels within society because of how political structures shape ideological structures, and how this is built around the economics of a society
• Coercion and consent - consent is used more than coercion through media etc, but in times of political unrest the use of force is effective, and laws etc act as effective limitations on class mobility
• There have been mini revolutions that have changed the system’s beliefs rather than the entire system, and hegemony helps to explain how these changes occur in order to maintain society as a whole whilst allowing growth in a way that satisfies the working class and the intellectuals
• Helps us to understand how we remain in capitalism despite revolution - the ruling class manipulate the consciousness to suit their needs and the working class believe they have won a battle e.g. rail strikes campaign for a better place in the system not a better system
• Clement and Myles - class system may no longer exist in the same capacity at all, and so Marxism cannot apply to the current class system that operates with more complex bourgeoisie / proletarian relations
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