Topic 6 - Marxism

• Marxism


  A conflict, macro theory where Marxists believe the economy shapes society and that capitalist society is unequal
• Social classes in Marxism


  • Ruling class (bourgeoisie)
  • Working class (proletariat)
• Ruling class


  • Control, exploit and brainwash the working class who provide wage labour
• Hegemony


  The ruling class creates a particular ideology which is imposed onto the working class, making them accept the capitalist system and preventing the system being challenged
• False class consciousness


  The working class are not aware of the true extent of their exploitation
• As things become progressively worse for the working class


  They will come together and overthrow the system, which will be replaced with socialism and communism
• Marx's 7 key ideas


  • Historical materialism
  • Class society and exploitation
  • Capitalism
  • Class Consciousness
  • Ideology
  • Alienation
  • The state, revolution and communism
• Historical materialism


  The view that humans are beings with material needs e.g. food, clothing and shelter, and must work to meet them, using the forces of production which have developed over time
• Historical materialism


  1. Humans cooperate to organise production (social relations of production)

  2. As the forces of production grow, the social relations of production change

  3. This led to a division of labour between the class who own the means of production and the class of labourers

  4. Production is then directed by the owners for their own needs
• Mode of production


  The economic base of society, e.g. currently we live in a capitalist mode of production
• Primitive communism


  In the earliest stages of human history, there are no classes, private ownership or exploitation - everyone works and everything is shared
• Successive class societies


  • Ancient society (exploitation of slaves legally tied to owners)
  • Feudal society (exploitation of serfs legally tied to the land)
  • Capitalist society (exploitation of free wage labourers)
• Capitalism


  • The proletariat are free and separated from the means of production, but have to sell their labour power to earn a wage to survive
  • Ownership of means of production becomes concentrated into fewer hands
  • Capitalism continually expands the forces of production in its pursuit of profit
• Class consciousness


  The proletariat moves from being merely a class in itself to becoming a class for itself, whose members are aware that they need to overthrow capitalism
• Ideology


  The dominant ideas in society are the ideas of the economically dominant class, which define the existing social order as desirable/inevitable and foster a false consciousness in the subordinate classes
• Alienation


  The result of our loss of control over our labour and its products, and therefore our separation from our true nature
• Alienation under capitalism


  • 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 repeating meaningless tasks
• State


  The army, police, prisons, courts and so on, which exist to protect the interests of the class of owners who control it
• Revolution


  1. Abolish the state and create a classless society

  2. Abolish exploitation

  3. Replace private ownership with social ownership

  4. End alienation
• Strengths of Marxism


  • It is the first critical theory which explains the huge and persistent inequalities in society
  • Marxist ideas illustrate the power of the economy in shaping relationships and ideas, and offer a solution or alternative to society
  • Many Marxist ideas are relevant today as we see capitalism spread around the world
• Criticisms of Marxism


  • Marx's view of class is simplistic and one-dimensional
  • Class polarisation has not occurred as predicted
  • Economic determinism - the view that economic factors are the sole cause of everything in society
• Humanistic or Critical Marxism


  Similarities with action theories and interpretive sociology, e.g. Gramsci
• Scientific or structuralist Marxism


  A structural approach with similarities to positivist sociology
• Gramsci's hegemony


  The ruling class develop ideologies which are imposed upon the working class, preventing revolution and ensuring capitalism is maintained
• Gramsci argued that people can use intellectual ideas to produce a collective struggle and change society
• Many sociologists that work within a Marxist framework have adopted a similar approach to Gramsci, stressing the role of ideas and consciousness as the basis for resisting domination and changing society
• Althusser's structuralist Marxism


  Society consists of three levels: the economic level, the political level, and the ideological level (ideological state apparatus), which all preserve and justify the capitalist system
• Althusser claims to oppose determinism and rejects economic determinism, but simply replaces it with a more complex 'structural determinism'
• Humanistic Marxists argue that Althusser's 'scientific' approach to understanding society discourages political activism because it stresses the role of structural factors that individuals can do little to affect