Marxism Flashcards

1
Q

Outline

A
  • Theory and Critique of Capitalism
  • Capitalism as a destructive system forcing some to exploit others
  • Drew on, elaborated and critiqued Classical Political Economy
  • Purpose of Capitalism: enhance wealth and power of ruling class, at expense of working class
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2
Q

Classical Tradition + Marxism ideas

A
  • Only physical objects have value - no services
  • Accumulation key element
  • Machinery expands the class gap (between those owning means of production and workers)
  • Tensions between property and social relations
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3
Q

Marx’s Vision

A
  • Socialist arrangement with conflict replaced by harmony
  • No distinct classes, collective ownership of means of production
  • All relations social - no tensions
  • History as successive stages governed by immutable laws
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4
Q

Creation of Wealth

A
  • Value comes from unpaid labour (exploit working class)
  • Markets are political creations to consolidate bourgeoise power
  • 2 Classes - proletariat and bourgeoise
  • Necessary time - Labour subsistence needs
  • Surplus time = surplus value - property of capitalists
  • Generation of surplus value = defining structural characteristic of capitalist system
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5
Q

Primitive Accumulation

A
  • Market not natural - history produced capitalists and labourers
  • Capitalism began after Serfdom UK (14thC-16thC)
  • Free/unattached proletarians into labour market
  • No power to claim land during expropriation
  • Private property enables private ownership of production
  • Landless proletariat sell own bodies as labour
  • Accumulation from income shares received by property owners
  • Capitalism bound to produce ever-widening cleavage within social structure (Marx)
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6
Q

Surplus Value and Accumulation

A
  • Surplus value enables accumulation
  • Marx: accumulation as command over unpaid labour
  • Surplus value claimed by capitalists used for extending capital and acquisition of machinery
  • Machinery means cost of commodities decreased
  • Race for cheapening commodities (competition)
  • Fight or be killed off in competitive struggle to accumulate (Barber)
  • Weaker capitalists destroyed
  • Accumulation under capitalism = creation of surplus value = pressure to reinvest
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7
Q

Machines

A
  • More people part of labour force (women/children) - cheap
  • Increase productivity
  • New agricultural techniques also increase productivity
  • Increased food requirements for industrial expansion
  • Value of commodities reduced
  • Expand surplus to acquisition of machinery - demand for labour diminish
  • No bargaining power
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8
Q

Labour Theory of Value

A
  • Exploitation theory
  • Labour time determines value
  • Machines can only replicate, not create, value
  • Wages don’t respond to value produced (subsistence needs only) - surplus = capitalist property
  • No harmony of interest
  • Machinery = paid less, less skilled job
  • Increasing misery of proletariat - no. of successful capitalists shrink
  • Labour ‘only productive agent and the source of all value’ (Barber)
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9
Q

Distribution money

A
  • Reserve army of employees - could replace if demand higher wages
  • Fluctuation of wages depend on how many workers available in reserve army
  • Productive agriculture = rising rents = increase price
  • Subsistence goods = higher money payments needed
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10
Q

Role of the State in Capitalism

A
  • State = committee for managing affairs of bourgeoise
  • Guarantee and regulate market in interests
  • State legal framework for ensuring property rights
  • Mechanisms for Proletariat to vent anger but stop from revolting e.g. trade unions
  • State naturalises something inherently unequal
  • Policy measure designed to alter course of history inevitably fruitless and vain
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11
Q

Crisis in Capitalism

A
  • Recurrent crisis - inherent in structure
  • Crisis means of re-asserting class relation
  • Profit thirsty people in race - exploiting workers to maximise profits
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12
Q

The Revolution

A
  • Laws of economic dynamics propelling to pre-destined end
  • Marx: telos of capitalism = inevitable and violent collapse
  • No intervention can stop this
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13
Q

Why Revolution

A
  1. Capitalism tendencies toward instability inherent in industrial capitalism
  2. Capitalism accumulations grow - size of reserve army swell
    - working class misery intensified
    - Proletariat enlarged by Capitalist failures
    - Process expected to lay foundations new economic order
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14
Q

Violent Revolution

A
  • Social tensions bred by capitalism too intense for peaceful transition
  • Revolution essential to Marxian theory of crisis
  • Violent overthrow of capitalist order not explained on technical economic grounds
  • Marx’s view of dynamics of history essential prop
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15
Q

Contemporary relevance for Marx

A
  • Labour Theory of Value not plausible
  • Revolution hasn’t happened
  • View of class overly simplistic - social divisions beyond
  • Didn’t envisage social class changes in modern society - outdated
  • State involvement
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16
Q

Problems with Theory of Value

A

-Only to further arguments about working class exploitation and supposedly inevitable revolution
(Reduces argument credibility)
-Barber describes as essential ‘prop’ to conclusion (1991)
-Neoclassical economists gave capitalists wages as well - not exploited through wages, risking
-Determination of value by labour time is a failed theory = based on supply and demand

17
Q

Exploitation

A
  • Workers forced to sell labour to Capitalist for less than worth
  • Workers paid disproportionately low wage
  • Entire proletariat can only maintain survival by allowing itself to be exploited on class scale
  • Exploitation fundamentally alienating
18
Q

Alienation in the Division of Labour

A
  • Division of Labour forces worker into increasingly simple, mechanised roles
  • Previously needed craftsman initiative, now mindless motor actions
  • Alienates worker from products of Labour
  • No longer creates product, only facilitates industrial process
  • No desire to produce product for sake of itself - object is only made for physical subsistence
  • Concepts of craft and spirit done away with in age of mass industry