Marxist Explanations of Inequality Flashcards
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Key Points & Theorists
Althusser - Economic Structure
Historical Materialism
Wealth & Power Feedback Loop
Labour theory of value
Class Polarisation
Alienation - Psychological impact of working under capitalism for w/c
Foxconn
Capitalist Ideology
Braverman Evaluation
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Economic Structure
ALTHUSSER:
BASE - Shapes the superstructure
- RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION: Bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat
- MEANS OF PRODUCTION: The things you need to produce machines / factories / land / materials (owned by the bourgeoise)
SUPERSTRUCTURE - Maintains & legitimises the base
- Perform important functions which legitimise a person’s position in society
- Agents of social control
- Education / family / religion / politics / mass media
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Historical Materialism Explanation
- Earliest human societies = based on primitive communism
[all members worked together to obtain what they needed from hunting / gathering] - Mx see all of history as class struggle
Apart from early stages of primitive communism, all of the major stages in history have been categorised by stratification on the basis of social class up to & including capitalism
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Historical Materialism Examples
Primitive Communism:
Means of production - Hunting / foraging
Explorative / Exploited Class - N/A: shared by all
Ancient Society:
Means of production - Slave-Labour
Explorative / Exploited Class - Slave owners / Slaves
Capitalism:
Means of Production - Industrial
Explorative / Exploited Class - Bourgeoisie / Proletariat
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Capitalism
Economical dominance derived from the fact that this is the group that owns & controls the means of production in a capitalist economy
- Production = facilities & resources to producing goods
- Land / factories / resources needed to undertake production in capitalist economy
Wealth & economic influence of bourgeoisie are political influence
- Land / factories / resources needed to undertake production in capitalist economy
- Bourgeoisie are both economically & politically dominant
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Wealth & Power Feedback Loop
[Operates within capitalism]
- Bourgeoisie use economic wealth to buy political influence with p/i they can further rig society & make themselves wealthier
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Labour theory of value
Relationship between bourgeoisie and proletariat is exploitative
- Proletariat only receive a fraction of what their labour is worth (wages) to capitalist class
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Class Polarisation
The divide between the w/c and the bourgeoisie is growing steadily wider as the bourgeoisie attempts to lower wages to increase profits
RESULT: Arrived at a situation in Britain where the richest 1% of the population’s wealth is as much as the poorest 60% of the population
- Smaller intermediate classes (aka petit bourgeoisie) would be driven out of business by increasingly powerful bigger businesses
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Alienation - Explanation
A feeling of disconnection between what you do all day and who you feel you are / would be ideally contributing to society
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Alienation - Psychological impact of working under capitalism for w/c
Work could ideally be the source of a person’s greatest joy
- For workers to be fulfilled in work, a worker needs to see themselves in the objects they’ve created
- Workers need control over their own work & be able to take pride in their own work
- Workers lost control over production process & became dehumanised as production became geared towards profit > satisfaction at work
- Work psychologically destroyed the worker
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Alienation - Example
FOXCONN - Factory suicide nets
- Capitalist company who manufactures iphones
- Suicide nets under housing for factory workers
- Working conditions have led to many workers committing suicide
2010 - 18 attempted suicides / 14 suicides
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Capitalist Ideology
W/c had the potential to overthrow capitalism because workers are in the majority - workers just need to recognise their potential by uniting in a revolution
- Had to throw off false-consciousness & become class-conscious to achieve this
- Capitalist system perpetuates an ideology that justifies capitalism & inequalities within it
- People are fed certain ideas by politics / cultural institutions (media) that justify and legitimate capitalism & class inequalities found in capitalism
- When w/c overthrow false-class consciousness Mx was convinced w/c would rise up and overthrow capitalism
- Communism would replace capitalism
- Means of production would be shared amongst the whole community
Marxist Explanations of Inequality:
Evaluation
:( - Capitalism has proven to be a resilient economic system: no alternative to capitalism
- Societies where communism was applied - often failed so communism does not act as a viable alternative to capitalism
:( - Problem of economic determinism
- Idea that mx as a theory places so much emphasis on social class inequality & tends to ignore other inequalities (CAGE)
:( - Largely dismisses importance of social classes in between the bourgeoisie & proletariat
- M/c groups (highly paid managers) have grown in size & importance meaning they should be acknowledged more than traditional mx allows
- Proletarianism (Braverman) - Many m/c jobs are becoming like w/c jobs
- Many m/c workers have become deskilled (e.g. clerical workers have become programmed into machines and computers which can be controlled by much lesser skilled people)
- Minimises control workers have
- Workers can now be paid lower wages
