Marxism Flashcards
What is meant my historical materialism?
needs, shelter, means of production,
- Materialism, humans have needs such as food and shelter
- In doing so, we use the means of production
- Used to be standard human labour, such as hunting
- Now - more tools and cooperation
- Industrialisation; now a class who own the means of production (bourgeoisie)
- And a class who use it (Proletariat)
Historical materialism & the economic base
- Economic base - shapes the rest of society
- The ‘superstructure’ arises from this
- Includes ideas, institutions, beliefs & behaviour
How can the early stage of human history be described?
- No classes
- No private ownership
- No exploitation
- Everyone works
- Everything is shared
How does Marx describe early classless society?
Primitive communism - forces of production grow, different types of class society come and go
How do class societies exploit the labour of others for their own benefit?
Only one class owns the means of production
Marx & ideology
- The class that owns the means of production also owns/produces/controls the means of mental production
- Dominant ideas are therefore the ideas of the dominant class
- The institutions that produce and spread ideas such as religion and education all serve the dominant class by producing ideologies that legitimise the existence of social inequality
- Ideology fosters a false consciousness in the subordinate classes and helps sustain class inequality
What is class consciousness?
- Capitalism sows the needs of its own destruction (eg; polarising the classes and bringing the proletariat together in larger numbers)
- Capitalism creates the conditions under which the w/c can develop a consciousness of its own economic and political interests
Describe alienation
- Is the result of our loss of control over our labour and it’s products
- Workers are completely separated from and have no control over the forces of production
- The divisions of labour is at its most intense and detailed (the worker is thereby reduced to an unskilled labourer mindlessly repeating a meaningless task)
The state, revolution & communism
- Marx defines the state as ‘armed bodies of men’ - army, police, prisons and courts
- The state exists to protect the interests of the class of owners who control it, as such, they form the ruling class
- They use the state as a weapon in the class struggle to protect their property, suppress and prevent revolution
- Proletariat revolution will first; abolish the state and create a classless, communist society
- Abolish exploitation, replace private ownership and replace production for profit
Criticisms of Marx - his view of class
- Marx has a simplistic view, one dimensional view of inequality
- Only recognises class as an import division
How does Webber & Feminists criticise Marx?
- Status and power differences can also be important sources of inequality independently of class
- Gender is a more fundamental source of inequality than class
Criticisms of Marx - economic determinism
- Marx’s base superstructure model is criticised for economic determinism- the view that economic factors are the sole cause of everything in society including social change
- Fails to recognise that humans have free will and can bring about change through their conscious actions
What is hegemony according to Gramsci?
The ideological and moral leadership of society - ruling class maintains position
The proletariat must develop its own ‘counter hegemony’ to win leadership of society from the bourgeoisie
How do the ruling class maintain dominance over society according to Gramsci?
Coercion - it used the army, police, prisons and courts of the capitalist state to force other classes to accept its rule
Consent - used ideas and values to persuade the subordinate classes that it’s rule is legitimate
Hegemony & revolution
Ruling class are a minority; to rule they need to create a power bloc by making alliances with other groups such as the middle class
Must make ideological compromises to take account of the interests of their allies
How do the proletariat have a dual class consciousness?
Their ideas are not only influenced by bourgeois - but also the material conditions of life, the poverty and exploitation they experience
Evaluation of Gramsci?
He is accused of over emphasising the role of ideas and under emphasising the role of both state coercion and economic factors
Althusser - structural Marxism (criticisms of the base superstructure level)
- Rejects Marx’s model for a more complex one ‘structural determinism’ whereby capitalist society has 3 structures of levels
- The economic level (comprising all those activities they all involve producing something in order to satisfy a need)
- The political level (corrosion all forms of organisation)
- The ideological level (Involving all the parties has that people see themselves and their world)
Althusser - ideological state apparatus
- State performs political and ideological functions that ensure the reproduction of capitalism
- ISA - includes the media, education system, the family, ideologically manipulate the working class to accept capitalism as legitimate
Althusser - Repressive state apparatus
- The ‘armed bodies of men’
- The army, police, courts - coerce the working class into complying with the will of the bourgeoisie
Evaluation of Althusser - Thompson
Criticises Althusser for ignoring the fact that it is the active struggles of the working class that can change society
Accuses him of elitism- the belief that the communist party knows what’s best for workers who should therefore blindly follow the party’s lead
