marxism Flashcards
marx key ideas - historical materialism
materialism = a view that humans have material needs, so they need to work to meet them = use the means of production
. history - these are just unaided human labour, but over time people develop machines.
humans cooperate and work together to meet their needs = enter social relations for production (ways of organising production)
As the forces of production grow, the social relations change = a division of labour develops = 2 classes
one that owns MOP
a class of labourers
The mode of production = the forces and relations of production together. this forms the economic base of society that shapes all other features of society
e.g shapes the nature of religion
marx key ideas - class society and exploitation
history - no classes, private ownership - everything is shared
Marx calls this ‘primitive communism’
but forces of production grew and so did different types of class society
In class societies, one class owns the means of production. = enables them to exploit the labour of others and control society’s surplus products (the differences between what the labourers produce and what is needed to keep them alive and working)
3 class societies each with their own form of exploitation
ancient: based on exploitation of slaves
feudal: exploitation of serfs legally tied to land
capitalist: exploitation of labourers
marx key ideas - capitalism
based on division between a class of owners - bourgeouisie and proletariat
proletariat - are legally free. because they don’t own any means of production, they have to sell their labour power to the B in return for wages
not an equal exchange - they don’t receive goods that their labour produces, only the cost to keep them alive - the difference between the two is surplus value - the prodit capitalists get by selling what the P produced
through competition between capitalists, ownership of means of production becomes concentrated in fewer hands. encourages capitalists to pay the lowest wages possible
capitalism expands the forces of production in pursuit of profit
they all work together to produce polarisation - society divides into a minority cap class and majority WC
marx’s 7 key ideas
historicla materialism
class society and exploitation
capitalism
class consciousness
ideology
alienation
the state, revolution and communism
Marx’s key ideas - class consciousness
capitalism sows its own seeds of destruction
By polarising the classes and bringing the proletariat together in growing numbers, it creates conditions to develop a consciousness in opposition to the exploiters
= it becomes a class for itself - and are class conscious - aware of the need to overthrow capitalism
Marx’s key ideas - ideology
The class that owns the mean of production also owns the mean of mental production
institutions that spread and produce ideas (religion,education) serve the dominant class by producing ideologies - beliefs that legitimise the existign social order as inevitable
It encourages false consciousness and helps maintain class inequality
Marx’s key ideas - alienation
= the result of our loss of control over our labour and its products
workers are seperated from and have no ocntrol over the forces of production
Marx’s key ideas - the state revolution and communism
defines the state as ‘armed bodies of men
The state exists to protect the interests of the class of owners who control it = they form the ruling class
use the state as a weapon in the class struggle to protect their property and suppress opposition
The revolution to overthrow capialism will abolish the state and create a classless society
end alienation
criticisms of Marx - simplistic
he sees class and the only important division
weber - status and power differences can also be important sources of inequality
feminists - gender is a more important source fo inequality
modern society is more compelx than just 2 classes
criticisms of marx - economic determinism
views economic factors as the sole cause of everything
fails to recognise humans have free will and can bring change through their actions
criticisms of marx - outdated
Marxism is often considered outdated, being a structural approach and a meta-narrative.
Postmodernists argue that it no longer applies to contemporary society, which offers more choices and individual autonomy.
criticisms of marx - no revolution
Despite Marx’s prediction of an inevitable proletarian revolution, no such revolution has occurred.
This raises questions about the accuracy and applicability of Marx’s theories in the current contex
2 approaches in response to the rejection of Marx’s economic determinism (Neo marxist)
humanistic/criticla marxism - Gramsci - neo-marx
scientific/structuralist marxism - Althusser
gramsci - 2 ways the ruling class maintains its dominance over society
coercion - uses army,police
consent (hegemony) - uses ideas to persuade its rule si legitimate
Gramsci - hegemony
The ruling class rely on consent to maintain their rule. they’re able to do this because they control institutions that spread ideas
As long as society accepts the ruling class hegemony (dominance), there will be no revolution
hegemony is never complete because:
The ruling class are a minority
The proletariat have a dual consciousness - their ideas are influenced by bourgeois ideology and the material conditions of life, poverty
= always the possibility for hegemony being undermined e.g economic crisis that gets them to question
only lead to revolution if the P can construct a counter-hegemonic bloc, - offer leadership to society
WC will only win if they produce ‘organic intellectuals’ - workers who can create an alternative vision of society
e.g martin luther king
gramsci ao3 - over and under emphasis
over emphasises the role of ideas
under-emphasises the role of state coercion and economic factors
althusser structurlaist marxism - structuralist determinism
rejects Marx’s base-superstructure model - in favour of the structural determinism model
Capitalist society has 3 structures:
economic level
political level
ideological level
political and ideological levels have partial independence from the economic level - they can affect what happens to economic level
Marx: They’re determined by the economic level
althusser structuralist marxism - criticisms of humanism
Althusser believe free will is an illusion
everything about us is the product of and determined by underlying social structures
our belief that we are free is false consciousness produced by the ISA
- may think education gives us the chance to achieve, but this is an illusion - myth of meritocracy
Class equality will come about because of a crisis of capitalism called over-determination - contradictions in the 3 structures
althusser structurlaist marxism - ideological and repressive state apparatuses
the state perfroms politicla and ideological functions to ensure reproduction of capitalism - 2 apparatuses
RSA - armed bodies of men - coerce WC to comply
ISA - media, education manipulate WC into accepting capitlaism as legitimate
althusser ao3 - replaces
Although he rejects economic determinism, he just replaces it with a more complex structural determinism
althusser ao3 - politicla activism
his approach discourages political activism because it stresses the role of structural factors that people can do little to affect
