Marxism

Question 1

Type of theory

Answer 1

• Derives from work of Karl Marx in the mid – C19
• Modernist theory – we can obtain ‘true’ knowledge of the workings of society and use this knowledge to improve society
• Macro, structuralist theory – understand the overall workings/ needs of the social system (economic structure particularly)
• State exists to protect interests of ruling class – suppress opposition, prevent revolution.
• How do they shape the features of society?
• Conflict theory – society has a subordinate and dominant (who own the means of production…and thought) group (P+B)
• Two groups have conflicting interest
• Bourgeoisie use ideology to keep the proletariat in false class consciousness (they have hegemony)
• We must work for capitalism to survive
•

Question 2

Historical materialism

Answer 2

● Materialism - humans are beings with material needs (food,shelter etc) and must work to meet them by using the forces of production
○ Earliest stage of human history - forces were unaided human labour
○ Over time = develop tools and machines to assist production
○ social relations of production= meeting their needs, corporations with one another

Question 3

Class society and exploitation

Answer 3

● Earliest stage of human history - no classes, no private ownership and no exploitation everything is shared (primitive communism)
● In class societies - one class owns the means of production which enables them to exploit labour for own benefit
● Three successive class societies own form of exploitation
○ Ancient Society - exploitation of slaves legally tied to owners
○ Feudal Society - exploitation of serfs legally tied to land
○ Capitalist Society - exploitation of free wage labour

Question 4

Capitalism

Answer 4

● Based on division between bourgeoisie and proletariat
● Capitalism continuously expands forces of production in pursuit of profit technological advances de skill the workforce

Question 5

Class consciousness

Answer 5

●	Working class developing consciousness of its own political and economic interests
●	Proletariat moves from class in itself to a class for itself aware of the need to overthrow capitalism

Question 6

Ideology

Answer 6

●	Class that owns the means of production also controls the means of mental production (ideas)
●	Dominant ideas in society are ideas of economically dominant class
●	Institutions that spread and produce ideas all serve dominant class by producing ideologies that legitimise social order as inevitable

Question 7

Alienation

Answer 7

● Alienation is the result of our loss of control over our labour and its products creating a separation from our true nature
● Exists in all class societies as the owners that control production process their own needs
● Alienation reached peak under capitalism due to:
○ Workers completely separated from control over the forces of production
○ Division of labour is most intense and detailed (unskilled labour mindlessly repeating a meaningless task)

Question 8

The state, revolution and capitalism

Answer 8

● A revolution will:
○ Abolish the state and create a classless 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

Question 9

Hegemony and revolution

Answer 9

●	As long as everyone accepts hegemony than a revolution will not occur even
●	But hegemony is never complete due to:
○	Ruling class minority - need to create power block with alliances make ideological compromises to take into account the interest of allies
○	Dual consciousness - ideas influenced by bourgeoisie but material condition e.g poverty and exploitation so they can ‘see through’ dominant ideology
●	Only can win battle by producing own organic intellectuals body of class conscious workers organised into a political party enabling them to formulate an idea of what society should be like

Question 10

Criticism of Gramsci

Answer 10

● Over-emphasizing roles of ideas

● Under-emphasizing the role of state coercion and economic factors

Question 11

State apparatuses

Answer 11

●	State performs political and ideological functions to ensure reproduction of capitalism
●	RSA - armed bodies of men coerce working class into complying with bourgeoisie
●	ISA - media, education, political parties etc that manipulate working class into accepting rules

Question 12

Criticisms of humanism

Answer 12

● We are not free agents and the belief of free will is false consciousness produced by ISA
● We are the products of social structures that determine everything about us

Question 13

Evaluation of Althusser

Answer 13

●	Ignoring the fact of active struggles of working class to change society 
●	Communist party knows best for workers (Elitism)