Family : Althusser

• Ideology

  Marxists argue that the working class rarely challenge capitalism because those who control the economy also control the family, education, media, religion - in fact, all the cultural institutions that are responsible for socializing individuals. Louis Althusser

  (1971) argued that the function of these cultural institutions is to maintain and legitimate class inequality. The family, education, the mass media and religion pass off ruling-class norms and values as 'normal' and 'natural'. Marxists refer to these ruling-class ideas as ideology.
• Agency of Social Control

  Althusser (1971), argued that, in order for capitalism to survive, the working class must submit to the ruling class or bourgeoisie. He suggested that the family is one of the ideological state apparatuses , along with others such as the education system and the media, which are concerned with social control and passing on the ideology (the ideas and beliefs) of the ruling class. Through socialization into this ideology in the family, the ruling class tries to maintain false class consciousness by winning the hearts and minds of the working class.