Marxism Flashcards
What is Marxism
-Macro, structural, conflict theory
-Shares the goals of the Enlightenment Project (modernist)
What did Karl Marx believe
-Like D, M believed it was possible to understand society scientifically (positivist)
-But didn’t see progress as smooth & gradual evolution. He saw it as a process of capitalism increasing human misery, eventually giving way to revolution and a classless communist society
What is historical materialism
-The idea that humans have material needs eg food & shelter- must work to meet these needs
-Through working, people use the means of production. Over time as it develops/changes the relations of production (ways) also change.
-Therefore, a specific division of labour develop between 2 classes.Owners of means (B) and class of workers (P)
What does Marx refer to the means & relations of production together?
-The mode of production.
-Currently live in a capitalist mode of production.
-This informs the economic base and as a result determines the superstore
What are the four epochs?
-With every changing society a differing class society would emerge
1. Primitive communism: no classes, no private ownership, no exploitation, everyone works, everything’s shared
2.Ancient society: based on exploitation of slaves legally tied to owners
3. Feudal society: asked on the exploitation of serfs legally tied to land
4. Capitalist society: based upon exploitation of free wage labourers
What is class polarisation
Capitalism produces this…the wealthy bourgeoisie and impoverished proletariat
What are the three prominent features of capitalism
- The P don’t own the means of production so they sell their labour for wages to survive
2.Due to competition, the MoP becomes concentrated into fewer ppl (TNCs)
3.Capitalism continually expands the forces of production to seek profit and technological advances to de-skill the labour force
What is class consciousness
where the wc develop a consciousness of its own, become aware of the need to overthrow capitalism
What are the means of mental production
-Marx stated the rc also own and control this. That is the institution that produce & spread ideas eg education, mass media, state, church ect
-This ideology produces a false consciousness- wc unaware of exploitation
What is alienation?
-The concept that due to capitalism, the P have lost control over their labour & what they produce. Therefore, they’re separated from their labour and from one another
Marx believed the states an armed body of men. what does this mean?
-Eg police, courts and prisons. The state exists to protect the interest of the rc
Revolution by P to overthrow capitalism will…
-Abolish the state & create a classless communist society
-Abolish exploitation, replace private ownership with social ownership and replace production for profit with production to satisfy human needs
-End alienation as humans regain control over their labour and its products
Capitalism in crisis and Polarisation as a criticism of marxism
Capitalism in crisis: Capitalism has grown stronger and through globalisation has spread globally. Communist systems have either been replaced by capitalist systems or have adopted capitalist characteristics
Polarisation: Of people into a tiny rich minority & an extremely poor majority has also not occurred in the same way Marx envisaged. There’s a huge inequality but, at the same time there’s been a massive prosthetic in the mc- the very group Marx predicted would disappear
Marx death and other social divisions as criticisms of marxism
-Marx death: Capitalism changed significantly after Marx death, with the introduction of a wider range of health, pension, housing and welfare benefits. All of which were missing from Marx analysis.
-Other social divisions: Marx paid little attention to these including those between men and women (gender divisions), ethnic differences, age, sexuality ect.
