Socialism Key Terms Flashcards
Historical/Dialectic Materialism
Each economic system has had an internal conflict, from which a new one emerged
shaped by Hedgel (idealism)
Class
Proletariat and bourgeoisie, 2 distinct classes in which people are born and stuck in
one oppresses the other is oppressed
Bourgeoisie
upper class, business owners, those who have the power and exploit and oppress the proletariat
Proletariat
Working class, oppressed and alienated by bourgeoisie, who will inevitably revolt
Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Intermediate stage between capitalist economy and communist economy, seizing the means of production
Surplus Value
The profits of manufactured goods
Exploitation
How people are mistreated within the production process and how workplace inequalities exist to use workers for profit
Alienation
Process whereby the worker is made to feel foreign to the product of their own labour
Urbanisation
City as a site of production and accumulation, rather than a site of coexisting neighbourhoods
Base
Production forces, or the materials and resources that generate the goods society needs
Shapes the superstructure
(eg private property + classes)
Superstructure
Varies and develops unevenly in society’s different activities
maintains the base and reflects the ruling class’ interests
(eg art + politics)
Accumulation of Capital
Operation whereby profits are reinvested into the economy, increasing the total quantity of capital
Concentration of Capital
Growing control and command over means of production and labour by individual capitalists
Class Consciousness
Where proletariat become aware of class distinction and the oppression enacted by bourgeoisie, leading to an inevitable revolution
False Consciousness
Proletariat’s inability to recognise inequality, oppression, and exploitation in a capitalist society due to prevalence of views that legitimise the existence of social cues
