marxism

• conflict theory

  constant state of conflict due to competition
• bourgeoisie

  exploit and brainwash the working class who provide wage labour - primary purpose is to make profit
• proletariat

  social class of workers who have to work for wages - don't own means of production
• alienation

  result of out loss of control over our labour and its products
• false class consciousness

  don't realise you're being oppressed
• 6 stages of society according to Marx

  1. primitive communism - co-operative tribal societies
  2. slave society - development of aristocracy from tribal living to city-state
  3. feudalism - aristocrats, the ruling class, and merchants evolve into capitalists
  4. capitalism - capitalist, the ruling class, and create and employ the proletariat
  5. socialism - workers gained social consciousness, dispose of capitalist dictatorship
  6. communism - a classless and stateless society
• Marxist structure of a capitalist society

  1. superstructure of society - art, family, culture, religion, philosophy, law, media, politics, education
  2. relations of production
  3. forces of production
• features of capitalist society

  made up of 2 classes - bourgeoisie, proletariat

  competition

  private business owners get most possible work out of their labourers whilst paying lowest possible wages
• features of communist society

  government own and distribute wealth, means of production in hands of the state and run in the interest of everyone

  equal society - overthrown bourgeoisie, no private investors

  no exploitation, social class and class conflict
• principle ideas to the marxist view

  exploitation - a person is exploited if they perform more labour than needed to produce the goods they need

  ideology - our norms and values and what we expect out of life are conditioned to us by the ruling class in a dominant ideology
• Marx believed the workers would realise they were being exploited and this would cause a revolution to overthrow capitalism and introduce a classless society based on communism

  Marxists explain the lack of a revolution due to a 'false class consciousness' within the working class
• false consciousness

  Louis Althusser (1971) argues the function of social institutions is to maintain and legitimate class inequality, like creating smokescreen, the ruling classes will spread ideas that justify their position in society and persuade the workers to accept their exploitation rather than organising a revolution
• evaluation of Marxism - over simplified

  Marx has a simplistic, one-dimensional view of inequality - sees class as the only important division

  Weber - status and power differences can also be important sources of inequality

  Marx's two class model is simplistic

  Weber sub-divided the proletariat into skilled and unskilled classes and includes a white-collar middle class of capitalist workers
• evaluation of Marxism - economic determinism

  fails to recognise humans have free will and can bring about change through their conscious actions

  neglects role of ideas
• evaluation of Marxism - Lack of revolution

  Marx predicted that revolution would occur in the most advanced capitalist countries - it is only economically backward countries that have seen Marxist-led revolution
• evaluation of Marxism - out of date

  Marx wrote during the height of the revolution
• evaluation of Marxism

  over-emphasising conflict when there must be harmony and shared values for social order to be possible

  marxist ideas focus on social class, which many argue is becoming less relevant than other parts of a person's identity, such as ethnicity and gender

  society doesn't always operate in the interests of the ruling class

  fail to consider the fact that social mobility can and does occur, the working class can increase their life chances
• evaluation of Marxism - positive

  first critical theory that explains the huge and persistent inequalities in society

  a structuralist approach which links the major institutions

  many Marxist ideas are relevant today as we see capitalism spread around the world; it may even be possible to see how developing countries have become the new proletariat

  Marx's ideas were so influential that a third of the planet was ruled under his ideas in 1900

  Marxist ideas illustrate the power of the economy in shaping relationships + ideas as well as offering a solution or alternative to society