Principles Flashcards
key principles
Historical Materialism
Class society and Exploitation
Problems of Capitalist Society
Alienation
Base and Superstructure
Ideology
Revolution
Classconsciousness
Materialist Conception of History
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle” (Marx and Engels, 1888; p. 2)
Historical Materialism
Society changes based on which groups own the majority of materials needed to produce things for society – means of production. This creates a contradiction between those who own the materials and those who do not
Dialectical Materialism
Two contradictions come into conflict and create something new. Society – Monarch + Bourgeoisie = Capitalism
what sociological debate does Marx fall under
Positivism
class exploitation
Every society that has historically existed has been based on a dominant class owning the means of production and a lower class who are exploited
the problems of capitalist society
Capitalism has created new classes
Capitalism has brought many benefits and advancements
Exploitation of the proletariat
Capitalism is unstable
Capitalism has brought many benefits and advancements
Revolutionising of production – capitalist reinvest in their businesses improving technology and productivity
Establish global connections – capitalism has allowed businesses to trade all over the world
BUT revolutionising has negative impacts:
Technology leads to unemployment
International monopolisation leads to concentration of wealth
1% to own 63% of global wealth 2030 (House of Commons
Library, 2018)
Capitalism has brought many benefits and advancements
Revolutionising of production – capitalist reinvest in their businesses improving technology and productivity
Establish global connections – capitalism has allowed businesses to trade all over the world
BUT revolutionising has negative impacts:
Technology leads to unemployment
International monopolisation leads to concentration of wealth
1% to own 63% of global wealth 2030 (House of Commons
Library, 2018)
Exploitation of the Proletariat
As the working-class have no means of production they have nothing to sell in society but their labour The proletariat have to enter contacts with the bourgeoise and pay them the minimum to keep them alive
Workers never receive full compensation for their work. The products they produce are owned and sold by their employer
for profit. Surplus value - workers receive less money than the value of their work
capitalism is unstable
Cycles of boom/bust
As each crises deepens the proletariat will become more class conscious
alienation
Mrax believes that our true nature is based on our capacity to create things to meet our needs. Alienation is the result of our loss of control over our labour and its products and therefore our separation from our true nature. Capitalism has alienated us from our human nature. Human nature is to produce. Animals produce for themselves. Workers produce for the community. Workers are completely separated from and have no control over the forces of production. The division of labour is at its most intense and detailed, the worker is reduced to an unskilled labourer mindlessly repeating a meaningless task
ideology
For Marx, the class that owns the means of production also owns and controls the means of mental production - the production of ideas. The dominant ideas in society are therefore the ideas of the economically dominant class. The institutions that produce and spread ideas, such as the media, education and religion - sets of beliefs and ideas that legitimise (justify) the exiting social order as desirable of inevitable.
what does ideology lead to
Ideology leads to fall class consciousness in the working classes and helps to sustain class inequality.
Revolution
Marx defines the state as ‘armed bodies of men’ - the state exists to protect the interests of the class of owners who controls it. As such, they form the ruling class. They use the state as a weapon in the class struggle, to protect their interests. Exists to support bourgeoise domination, and stop the proletariat from revolting. Communism like capitalism can only be achieved through revolution -
Abolish the state
Abolish private property with the means of production owned by the community
Abolish alienation and ideological control
“Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose
criticism of marx’s view of class
- Marx has a simplistic, one-dimensional view of inequality - he sees class as the only important division. Weber argues that status and power differences can also be important sources of inequality, independently of class. Similarly, feminists argue that gender is a more fundamental source of inequality than class
Economic determinism
The view is that economic factors are the sole cause of everything in society, including social change. Critics argue that this fails to recognise that humans have free will and can bring about change through their conscious actions.
