marxism Flashcards
20mk essay structure on traditional marxism
- historical materialism
- capitalism, class conflict, exploitation, alienation
- dominant ideology
- solutions: communism
marxism - basics
macro structural theory - focuses on social system
conflict theory - conflict of interests eg economic interests between social classes
modernist theory sharing goals of the enlightenment - we can obtain true knowledge of functioning society
this knowledge can be used to improve society
historical materialism - scientific theory
- positive approach
- marx used comparative techniques and extensive historical analysis to develop theory of historical materialism
- argues he followed the positivist empirical method - theory established the scientific facts of historical development
historical materialism
- first priority of humans - ensure physical survive - food and shelter
- early stages of human history - relied on own labour to meet means of production - society became more complex had to cooperate - social relationships of production
work is the sole source of wealth - in primitive societies - no classes no exploitation - but - as society began to produce more than necessary to survive - possible for one section to not work and be supported by labour of others - allowed for private ownership of means of production
historical materialism - economic base and superstructure model
economy driving force in society - determines the nature of social institutions and people’s beliefs and values
economic base or infrastructure - underpinned and determined everything else in society
superstructure - influenced or determined by the economic system - maintains and legitimates the infrastructure
EVAL - Althusser (neo-marxism - structural marxism) - three levels - economic, political and ideological level - relative autonomy so partially independent and two way causality
historical materialism evaluation
neo-marxism - althusser (internal criticism) argues that society is in the fact made up of three structures not two
max weber - overemphasises class as only important division and source of inequality - status and power differences can be important of inequality eg soviet union power elite ruled without owning means of production
weber - base-superstructure model overemphasises role of economy - ideas may influence behaviour and cause social change independently of economy
social action criticism - deterministic and sees individuals as simply passive product of the social system - doesnt allow for individual choice as social action theorists do
capitalism, class conflict, exploitation, alienation - capitalist industrial society has distinctive features
- proletariat legally free and separate from means of production
- competition between capitalists results in ownership - means of production becoming concentrated in fewer hands - shrinking bourgeoisie and expending proletariat
- capitalism is continually in pursuit of ever-greater profit, technological advances deskill workforce - increase divide between minority bourgeoisie and proletariat
leads to polarisation between classes
immiseration - rich get richer, poor get poorer
capitalism, class conflict, exploitation, alienation - capitalists and workers
bourgeoisie - small, wealthy and powerful class of owners of means of production
proletariat - large, poorer class of non-owners - no means of living other to sell their labour power to bourgeoisie in exchange for wage of salary - bourgeoisie makes profits
exploitation - workers produce more than needed - extra is surplus value - profit for employer - all profit from surplus value so bourgeoisie live off labour of proletariat
class conflict - exploitation of non-owners by owners creates major differences of interest - class conflict
capitalism, class conflict, exploitation, alienation - alienation
key feature is separation of workers from each other and themselves - alienation - workers no longer see themselves in their labour
- separated from fundamental act of labour as values imbedded in their labour reflect dominant ideology of the bourgeoisie
- workers do not recognise the true nature of their or their fellow workers exploitation
capitalism, class conflict, exploitation, alienation - evaluation
consensus criticism - marx overemphasises extent of conflict in society - functionalists would argue that society is primarily stable - must be shared values for social life to be possible - revolution has not succeeded
feminism - overemphasises class as source of inequality and conflict - gender is more important source of inequality
weber - ignores conflicts within class driven by status and party - two-class model of inequality is inadequate and simplistic - weber sub-divides the proletariat into skills and unskilled - more accurate than marxism due to expansion of middle classes
dominant ideology
ruling ideas in any society are those of owning class - major institutions in superstructure of society reflects the ideas and interests of bourgeoisie - workers almost brainwashed to accept position - lack of awareness in own interests - false consciousness
bourgeoisie use their control over superstructure to ensure dominant ideology is maintained
zaretsky - family
bowles and gintis - correspondence principle - school
dominant ideology evaluation
strength
- neo-marxist gramsci agreed with marx that social institutions have major role in maintaining the dominant ideology
limitation
- neo-marxist gramsci does not see the hegemony by a monolithic, all-powerful bourgeoisie - alliances are needed to create a powerful bloc - rather than a passive ideology, working class have dual consciousness
capitalism leads to two concepts of class
class in itself - false consciousness and alienation, the proletariat do not recognise that they share a common class position and exploitation - not a conscious class
class for itself - when a class sees through alienation and false consciousness and develop a shared class consciousness - occur partly because levels of inequality between increasingly poor proletariat and increasingly wealthy bourgeoisie minority so apparent that dominant ideology no longer effective
capitalism and revolution
marx - one day workers would become aware of their exploitation - wealth and power become more concentrated in hands of the few, the workers become poorer - lead w/c to develop class-consciousness
class-consciousness - an awareness of their real interests and exploitation
w/c - join together to act against bourgeoisie through strikes - revolution
capitalism and revolution evaluation
Gramsci - neo-marxism - disagreed that economic forces alone would bring about revolutionary change
- as long as proletariat accepts hegemony - no revolution - ideas played a crucial role in influencing social change
revolution: - marxists need to win hearts of proletariat by connecting ideas to popular culture so alliances can form to construct counter-hegemonic bloc - become organic intellectuals
organic intellectuals - body of workers, organised into revolutionary political party, who can offer an alternative vision to capitalism
