Social class: Marxism Flashcards
Class conflict:
Argue that although the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are dependent on each other, their relationship is based on conflict
Although the proletariat create the wealth of the ruling class, only a fraction of profit come back to them
The bourgeoisie keep the wages low and the profits high
Issues which could lead to capitalist breakdown:
- Polarisation of class
- Alienation
- Economic crisis
Polarisation of social class
- The divide between the working class and capitalists will slowly grow as the bourgeoisie try to increase their profits.
- Intermediate, small business owners would be driven out of their businesses by bigger business which increases the divide between the two main classes.
Alienation:
- Workers can’t find joy in working because they have no control.
- They are just being used as commodities to increase production and profits.
- Outside of work, the workers are encouraged to find satisfaction in consumer culture and activities that benefit capitalism rather than find health human relationships.
Economic crisis:
- Marx said that capitalism economies suffer from periodic crisis.
- The competition between companies creates ‘boom’ periods but these are then followed by recession.
- At some point a crisis will lead to a collapse of the whole system
Overthrow of capitalism:
- Working class could overthrow capitalism because they are in the majority and just needed to realise their potential of creating a revolution.
- To create this revolution, they needed to throw off ‘false class consciousness’
- Once the working class realised all the way that they were being exploited (laws, mass media, education) then they would try to overthrow capitalism.
- Marx believed that this would be the start of communism – the means of production would be shared by the whole community.
- This means that social classed due to economic inequalities would disappear and there would be a classless society.
Evaluation of Marxism:
Economic determinism: Marx said that all societies can be explained through economics. However, others look at how people behave due to cultural reasons (e.g. religious beliefs). Therefore Marx ignores other types of inequalities
The middle class: Marx ignores the importance of the middle class. Critics say that rather than saying that this group has absorbed into the other two – the middle class has actually grown in size and importance
The success of capitalism: Although capitalist societies go through booms and recession, most discontent is contained, This means that the working class have enjoyed raising in living standards and allow for everyone to elect their government so people have a choice.
Westegaard and resler
- Little evidence of class divisions in society disappearing which suggested that inequalities could be understood as the result of the capitalist society.
- Class divisions have widened since the 70s
Braverman:
- Proletarianisation of the middle class
- Middle class workers have become de—skilled
- The skills of people have been programmed by machines or broken down so less skilled workers can take responsibility.
- This means that employers can pay their workers less which leads to polarisation where middle class workers class position is reduced down to the working class
Gramsci:
- Used hegemony to explain why the working class in Western Europe had not formed a revolution.
- He said that the ruling class didn’t need to use force because they rule through persuasion.
- Hegemony means that using cultural and political means to encourage the working class to side with the ruling class to maintain stability
Sklair:
- The government are finding is increasingly difficult to control the activities of the TNC’s which means that trans-national corporations have more power than national governments. - This means that those who control TNC’s have become the global ruling class.
