Marxism, did after all, come about as a response or better option to capitalism. Marx viewed capitalism and the market economy as evil. He believed that capitalism robbed society and it’s members of the ability to dictate their own collective and individual destinies. He contented that a capitalistic society consisted of two entities; the haves and the have-not. The haves, or the bourgeoisie, were the capitalist that controlled the means of production, while the have-nots, or the proletariat, were the working class that were exploited by the capitalists.
Karl Marx was a German philosopher and a political revolutionary. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx was written to elaborate on the goals of communism. It explains how class struggles were the main cause of most historical events. This book also makes a clear point about how different classes correlation with each other had a lot to do with the production of that era. After some time though these relationships faded and means of production became independent from social class.
He had an idea of a state in which people would live freely and would be able to change their occupations and educate themselves in any field they desired without having to fear about their future or income , because all that would be provided and shared equally. There would be no other parties or oppositions, because in order for Communism to work it needs to have absolute power over everything within the country and the people themselves would need to accept that the working class and all the other classes would be dissolved and become equal in terms of living. It has been said that Karl Marx viewed people as naturally good and harmless towards each other. This was the main foundation for his idea of Communist state. But what Karl Marx did not foresee was that it’s in human nature to be egoistical, to be greedy and to desire to exert control over another.
This is where we see that capitalism is based on the exploitation of the proletariat workers by the bourgeoisie (Mandel, 1976). Workers start seeing work as solely a way to earn capital to buy goods and services they desperately need to exist. This is what caused miners to strike, the frustration of knowing that they work so hard to only receive enough money for basic needs. According to Marx, “the more the workers produce, the more they lose themselves.” (Haralambos and Holborn, 2008. 868).
He argues that with all the pressures of class conflict and the imbalance of capitalism there is no way that this pattern can continue without a major revolution. Marx compares capitalism to anarchy, in the sense that there is no organization within which only causes chaos. The common pattern of capitalism is a boom followed by a bust, and that bust leads to recession and social unrest. This sort of fickle economy, Marx believes, will furthermore contribute to the downfall of capitalism. This socialist revolution would, “abolish private ownership of key elements of economy and change nature of relationships from ones based on marriage and property.” (Allen, Lecture 5: Marx and His Life, 2014).
None society is unite because the different classes are always confronting each other as they have opposite interests. The economist Marx defines a tendency towards a polarization of classes in capitalist societies — he suggests that the class structure consists of two classes which are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The capitalist method of production produces necessarily social conflicts between these two classes which have distinct interests: this phenomenon is called the class struggle. Marx starts his Manifesto with a sentence that proves how primordial is this notion of class struggle : « The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. » It is an economic analysis of the History — considering the relations of production.
suffered in order to earn money and fulfil their daily needs. Karl Marx’s was one of the first social scientists to mainly focus on social classes, he was a German philosopher, economist and sociologist. His theory, Marxism was an alternative for the functionalism and was famous during the 1970’s as it party explained why functionalism had failed. His work was mostly concerned with economic issues, but as he was concerned connecting the economic problems to social institutions, his work remained rich in sociological insights. The European industrialization that took place in the 19th century transformed the society drastically.
Marx introduced the class theory. He was aware that the continuance of class struggle would create chaos within communities. Although an extremist and a firm believer in communism, Karl Marx adamantly protested against capitalism, and explained that it is the many that should reap the benefits and be provided a suitable lifestyle. Karl Marx' study constantly revolves around male relationships being shaped by their essential positions in regard to the means of production— the variant access to limited resources and inadequate power. Marx noted that imbalanced access didn’t always necessarily have to lead to unconditional, active class struggle.
Marx believed that the individual was not truly free because he was alienated. This alienation is the product of the market product, the division of labour and the division of society into classes that are antagonistic to each other. Marxism is not a unified theory. It can be defined as “a family of theories united by a common terrain of debate and question”. Thus, these last few years marked a decline of the consensus among marxists over many of the main elements of their own theoretical tradition.
The ethical references made by Marx give the idea that the Bourgeois and Proletarians were part of the problem. He delicately notes, “…the markets kept ever growing, and the demand ever rising” (2). After reading this, it is safe to for the reader to assume that the increase in demand is due to the people, local or otherwise. It doesn’t appear that Marx is trying to say the people deserved the minuscule earnings they received for their work, but through the development of machines and efficiency the laborers of the time were not as needed as they once were. When Marx describes the position of the common working man he states, “Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, and organized like soldiers” (8).