Marx & Weber

Proletariat

Marx's term for the working class; those who do not own the means of production and must sell their labor for wages.

Bourgeoisie

Marx's term for the capitalist class; those who own the means of production (factories, mines, businesses) and control the superstructure.

Means of Production

In Marx, the implements and physical structures necessary for production (land, machines, factories); relationship to the means of production defines class position.

Mode of Production

Marx's term for a society's basic socioeconomic system, encompassing technology and social organization of production (e.g., feudalism, capitalism, communism).

Superstructure

Marx's term for the dominant political institutions and ideology of a society; the means by which the ruling class maintains power (government, courts, schools, media, churches).

Ideology (Marx)

The pervasive ideas that uphold the status quo and sustain the ruling class; "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas."

Class Conflict (Marx)

The struggle between classes as the basic source of social change; "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."

Class-In-Itself (Marx)

Class in a formal sense; members have same objective class position defined by place in economy but are not conscious of their common situation.

Class-For-Itself (Marx)

Class in an active sense; members engage in militant action to defend interests in direct opposition to other classes and share subjective class consciousness.

Use Value (Marx)

Value based on a material product's use; emerges from useful labor (making a thing for use by a particular person or group).

Exchange Value (Marx)

Value that emerges in exchange; determined by weighing what a product is worth relative to another product; comes from abstracted labor (making a thing for exchange).

Labor Theory of Value (Marx)

All products in exchange (commodities) have their value determined by the socially necessary labor time required to produce them in a given historical context.

Surplus Value (Marx)

The extra production value beyond the cost of reproducing labor power (subsistence); how capitalists make profit by paying workers less than the value of what they produce.

Constant Capital (Marx)

Machinery, tools, land, overhead; only variable capital can produce surplus value and profit.

Variable Capital (Marx)

Wages for labor power; the only source of surplus value and profit; the lower the ratio of constant to variable capital, the greater the surplus value.

Free Labor (Marx)

The freedom of every laborer to sell their labor for a price; labor power is a commodity whose value is the socially necessary time to reproduce the worker (subsistence costs).