Marxism Flashcards
Marx - means of production and exploitation
Marx believed the fundamental parts of society are the classes in relation to the means of production. In capitalist societies the means of production include factories and machinery owned by the bourgeoisie. The working class have to work for them in order to make a living so their relationship is one of exploitation.
False class conciousness
The proletariat do not realise the unfairness of the situation due to capitalist ideology which creates a false class consciousness - employed by religion, media, education. They produce dominant capitalist ideology
Revolution
Eventually the proletariat will see through the ideology of capitalists due to things like alienation and recessions. Marx belived eventually the proletariat would gain class consciousness and see through the lies of capitalism and have a revolution creating a socialist and communist society
History of class struggle
Primitive communism
Ancient society
Feudal society
Capitalist society
Advanced communism
The base and the superstructure
The base is the economic system - how goods are produced and who owns the resources - includes relations of production and means of production
The superstructure is everything else in society built on top of the base like education, religion, law, media, family and culture.
The base shapes the superstructure and the superstructure helps to keep the base in place
Why did neo marxism theories come about
Because communist revolutions had not happened in some countries so they tried to explain how and why capitalism persisted and what may bring about its eventual demise
Neo Marxist - Gramsci why did revolution not happen
Did not think the recessions caused by capitalism were not enough to bring about a revolution. He suggested capitalism endured because capitalist ideology was too powerful and their ideas have cultural hegemony and ruling classes exert their power through force and consent
Neo Marxist - Gramsci - 2 divisions of the superstructure
Political society - made up of the institutions that rule by force eg the police and army
Civil society - made of institutions that rule by consent eg religion and mass media - he suggests this plays a key role in maintaining cultural hegemony as those in power create a power bloc to keep control by using the media
Neo Marxist - Gramsci - how can revolution occur
Marxists must win over the hears and minds of the proletariat by connecting Marxists ideals to the popular culture they need to form a counter hegemonic blog eg liberation hypothesis - if capitalist ideology can be challenged in this way then revolution could occur
Neo marxist Althusser - two ways in which bourgeoisie control society
Repressive state apparatus - physical way in which bourgeoisie control including the military and criminal justice system
Ideological state apparatus - control the ideas of proletariat and transmit capitalist norms and values
Althusser - myth of meritocracy
education ensures wc fail but they attribute their failure to their own ability because the schooling system is meant to be equal
