Traditional Marxism

Historical Materialism (Marx)

History is made as a a result of material things and how we make them and the ideas people had. Physical things such as food and shelter create history NOT ideas. Ideas themselves come from the material conditions in which we live.

Primitive communism

Private property and ownership of land has not been established, saw this time as ‘primitive communism’ as everything was shared and there were no specific social relations of production, therefore no class conflict/little exploitation. Ownership of means of production happened. This led to a class system where there was one class who owned the land/means of production and another class who didn’t.

Means of production

Industrial revolution led to the use of coal to create steam powered, and then electricity powered, mass production of goods. Globalisation means goods can travel to and from anywhere.

Social relations of production

Bourgeoisie own means of production, proletariat do not.

Capitalism

Exploitation of free wage labourers. Bourgeoisie use their employees to make products which they sell to make themselves even more money. Employees get money in return but have no choice but to give it back to the Bourgeoisie in return for the goods that they need.

Bourgeoisie

Smaller group in society, have more power than the proletariat, own the means of production, sell the products that the proletariat produce.

Proletariat

Have to sell their labour to the bourgeoisie in order to survive, do not own means of production, get wage from the bourgeoisie but give money back to bourgeoisie when they but goods from them.

Structure of capitalist society

means of production + social relations of production

e.g. factories, mass production e.g. Proletariat & Bourgeoisie

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mode of production: Capitalism

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Economic base and superstructure of society: Profit

Capitalist exploitation

Proletariat don’t get a fair wage for their labour, do not receive amount of money that the product of their labour is worth, Bourgeoisie take all profit for themselves rather than paying it back to workers, proletariat don’t own means of production

Surplus value

Profit minus whatever the bourgeoisie pays the proletariat in wages

Deskilled

technological advancements and specialisation of companies mean that the proletariat become deskilled (lose their old skills). Robots and machines take over their jobs and we forget old techniques and skills as big factories perform them at a much quicker speed.

Exploiatation

Through competition to make the most profit between the Bourgeoisie, the means of production become even more concentrated in to the hands of a small number of companies. This makes it harder for small independent business to survive.

Alienation

Proletariat are alienated because they cannot truly understand or fulfil their true potential - or ‘species being’ (human nature). This is because they are controlled by capitalism. Suffer alienation because:

\- don’t own what they produce, capitalists do

\- don’t own actual labour (their productivity), this is bought from them by the capitalists at our hourly rate

\- therefore do not have any say over their productivity, the capitalists tell them what to do, for how many hours etc.

\- productivity then becomes specialised and they lose all other skills, often makes their productivity repetitive/boring and sucks creativity out of them

4 types of alienation

* alienated from the product- what they are making (don’t get to keep/own it, can’t buy it as they don’t earn enough)
* alienated from each other - start to see each other in competitive terms, got to reach targets etc. see people in monetary terms
* alienated from yourself - you feel alienated from who you are rather than your species being, lose personality and identity
* alienated from species being

Class consciousness

Marx believed capitalism would eventually bring about class consciousness through:

* low wages
* bad working conditions
* increasing inequality between rich and poor

This would bring about the peak of alienation for the proletariat. Marx believes these conditions would become so bad that that the proletariat would become aware of the exploitation and come together to overthrow capitalism to create communism.

Ideology

Whoever owns the means of production also controls the rest of society including the dominant ideas. They ‘brainwash’ society to accept their capitalist/bourgeoisie ideology. The bourgeoisie use the state as a weapon to protect their own interests and PREVENT the proletariat from rebelling. All institutions work together to legitimise the position of the ruling class.

Criticism of Marx

Over simplistic view of class - ignores many other power imbalances such as sexism, boss/employer, racism, homophobia etc. More than 2 classes - under class, working class, middle class, upper middle class, upper class, aristocracy etc.

MARXIST RESPONSE: middle class are still proletariat if they have to sell their labour, still alienated as their life is controlled by bourgeoisie capitalism.

The only way to end all other imbalances is to end the class struggle, if proletariat are not alienated through capitalism they will not take prejudices out on each other. Marx argues divisions are created by the bourgeoisie to distract the proletariat from capitalist exploitation.

Criticism of Marx

Too deterministic - fails to recognise human free will.

MARXIST RESPONSE: Free will is a myth created by the bourgeoisie so that it can blame the proletariat for their own suffering, we are never truly free as we will always be restricted by the structures around us.

Criticism of Marx

The only places where revolution has taken place has not led to proletariat being truly free but instead more oppression has happened.

MARXIST RESPONSE: Marx argues that these countries didn’t follow the steps he predicted

Criticism - Economic Determinism

Action theorists (non-structural theories) criticise Marx for giving too much attention to the economy and the superstructure of society, argue his base-superstructure model of society is deterministic (views economic factors as the sole cause of everything). They argue he treats humans like puppets who have no free will or agency, he ignores that people create their own way in life. He also ignores that ideas themselves can change society. Weber argues that ideas such as Calvinistic Protestantism helped bring about modern capitalism. Therefore, Weber argues that the ideas themselves can change the economic system.