M- H M

Which Marx text provides the central summary of historical materialism?

1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

What does Marx describe in the 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy?

his theory of history

What are the forces of production in Marx's historical materialism?

means of production and labour power

What does Marx say humans inevitably enter into during social production?

definite relations of production

What constitutes society's economic structure in Marx's 1859 Preface?

totality of relations of production

What does the mode of production condition according to Marx's 1859 Preface?

social, political and intellectual life

How do base and superstructure interact according to the notes?

they mutually reinforce each other

What does Marx's pregnancy metaphor imply about historical transformation?

new social forms develop within old society before revolution

What must workers undergo to achieve emancipation according to Marx's Paris Commune discussion?

‘long struggles and historic processes’

What is transformed during the historic processes required for emancipation?

‘circumstances and people’

What does Marx say communists do not have to simply to impose on society?;

ready-made ideals

What does Marx say revolution should set free from collapsing bourgeois society?

elements of the new society already within it

Which Marx text describes force as the midwife of an old society pregnant with a new one?

Capital Volume One

What role does force play in Marx's midwife metaphor?

delivers rather than designs the new economic system

How does Marx apply the midwife metaphor to capitalism's emergence from feudalism?

capitalist elements already developed within feudalism before force delivered them

Which Marx text says society cannot remove normal developmental stages by "bold leaps"?

Preface to the First German Edition of Capital

What does Marx say society cannot use legal enactments to abolish in the Preface to Capital?

successive phases of normal development

What can human action do to the "birth-pangs" of historical development according to Marx?

shorten and lessen them

What alternative translation of Marx's "determines" weakens the deterministic reading?

conditions

Which thinker gives the Development Thesis and Primacy Thesis interpretation of historical materialism?

G A Cohen

What does Cohen's Development Thesis claim?

productive forces tend to develop

What does Cohen's first Primacy Thesis claim?

productive forces are primary over relations of production

What does Cohen's second Primacy Thesis claim?

economic base is primary over superstructure

Why does Cohen need the base and superstructure to be conceptually distinct?

one cannot determine the other unless they are distinct

How did Cohen initially define productive relations in Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence?

rights-based ownership relationships

Why does Cohen's rights-based definition fail to isolate the economic base?

rights are legal institutions in the superstructure

What concept does Cohen introduce instead of legal rights to define productive relations?

matching powers

What are Cohen's "matching powers" intended to describe?

property relations through non-normative powers and constraints

What is Cohen trying to achieve by replacing rights with matching powers?

define the base without referring to the superstructure

Which thinker identifies three difficulties with Cohen's attempt to define abilities independently of norms?

Lukes

What is Lukes's first problem with defining an agent's abilities?

abilities depend on how the agent is conceived

What is Lukes's second problem with defining an agent's abilities?

abilities depend on background assumptions

What is Lukes's most important problem for Cohen's base-superstructure distinction?

norms affect and constrain abilities

Which thinker argues that material production cannot be separated from social relations?

Sayer

Which Marx text does Sayer use to show that production necessarily involves social relations?

Wage Labour and Capital

What conclusion does Sayer draw from Marx's account of cooperative production?

material production necessarily involves social relations

What reduction of productive forces does Sayer reject?

reducing them to physical things used in production

Why do machines and railways undermine a purely material conception of productive forces?

they embody human labour and social activity

Which thinkers contribute to the debate over whether base and superstructure can be conceptually separated?

Cohen, Lukes and Sayer

Which thinker attempts to defend a strict conceptual distinction between base and superstructure?

G A Cohen

What reversal creates a further problem for Cohen's first Primacy Thesis?

relations of production can influence productive forces

Which Marx quotation shows that productive forces are influenced by the relations of production contradicting the primacy thesis?

‘the bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production’

Which text says the bourgeoisie constantly revolutionises the instruments of production?

The Communist Manifesto

What solution does Cohen offer to apparent two-way causation in historical materialism?

functional explanation

How does Cohen's functional explanation preserve the primacy of productive forces?

relations exist because they promote productive-force development

Why can economic relations affect productive forces without becoming explanatorily primary for Cohen?

their function explains why those relations exist

Why do legal property rights exist under Cohen's functional interpretation?

because they stabilise underlying property relations

Which scientific theory does Cohen use to defend functional explanation?

Darwinian evolution

In which letter did Marx praise Darwin's relevance to historical class struggle?

1862 letter to Lassalle

What did Marx say Darwin provided for historical class struggle?

‘a basis in natural science’

Which thinker criticises Cohen's functionalism for lacking a specified feedback mechanism?

Elster

Which thinker offers a less economically deterministic interpretation of the 1859 Preface than Cohen?

Engels

What interpretation was Engels trying to correct in his 1890 Letter to Joseph Bloch?

economic determinism

What does Engels explicitly deny Marx and he ever claimed?

economics is the only determining factor

What does Engels call the claim that economics is the only determining factor?

‘meaningless, abstract and absurd’

How does Engels characterise base and superstructure more broadly than Cohen?

economic and ideological spheres

Which thinkers contribute to the debate over deterministic versus reciprocal base-superstructure causation?

Cohen, Engels, Lukes, Sayer and Elster

Why is overlap between base and superstructure compatible with dialectical analysis?

dialectical terms contain and interact with their opposites

What historical objection is used by revisionists against Marx's theory of inevitable capitalist development?

predicted revolutionary outcomes have not occurred

What assumption underlies the claim that history has disproved historical materialism?

Marx intended it as a predictive theory

What distinction can defend Marx against claims that historical materialism has been falsified?

prediction versus explanation

What three stages occur in the history of capitalism?

technological advance, capitalist contradiction, social revolution

Why do socialist revolutions in relatively non-capitalist societies challenge a strict stage theory?

they skip the expected capitalist development

Which theory tries to explain revolutions occurring at different developmental stages?

Uneven and Combined Development

What development in modern class structure challenges Marx's prediction of polarisation?

growth of the middle class

What phrase from the Communist Manifesto describes the predicted polarisation of capitalist society?

‘two great hostile camps’

Why might weaker workplace organisation reduce class consciousness?

workers have fewer opportunities for collective organisation

Which revisionist thinker uses middle-class growth against Marx's predicted class polarisation?

Bernstein

What is relative immiseration in Marx's account of capitalism?

workers improve absolutely while worsening relative to capitalists

Which Marx text contains the example that wages may rise while profits rise faster?

Wage Labour and Capital

Which Marx text says accumulation of wealth at one pole creates accumulation of misery at the other?

Capital Volume One

Which thinker develops the idea of a new ‘neo-proletariat’

André Gorz

What two technological developments generate Gorz's neo-proletariat

abolition of work and industrialisation of intellectual work

What employment conditions characterise Gorz's neo-proletariat

temporary work, overqualification and eventual unemployment

How does Gorz's neo-proletariat differ from Marx's revolutionary proletariat?

it lacks stable productive organisation

Which Marxian class is useful for comparison with Gorz's unemployed neo-proletariat?

lumpenproletariat

Why does Marx's lumpenproletariat lack a revolutionary role?

it lacks collective organisation, lies outside productive relations and may compromise with the Bourgeoisie

What capitalist contradiction can arise if technological unemployment creates large masses without wages?

consumers lack demand to purchase output

How can an international perspective explain improved conditions for workers in wealthy capitalist countries?

exploitation is displaced onto poorer countries

Which thinker explains reduced revolutionary incentives through imperialist super-profits?

Lenin

Which Lenin text explains how imperialist super-profits can reduce revolutionary action?

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism

How can imperialist super-profits stabilise capitalism in imperialist countries?

they fund higher living standards, reducing incentive to revolt

What are the subjective conditions for revolution in the notes' account of historical materialism?

a historical agent with power and motivation to transform society

What four characteristics make Marx's proletariat the revolutionary historical agent?

majority, wealth-producing, exploited and neediest

Which proletarian characteristics provide the power for revolution?

being the majority and producing society's wealth

Which proletarian characteristics provide the motivation for revolution?

being exploited and the neediest

What fifth revolutionary characteristic follows from the proletariat's social position?

nothing to lose

Which thinker argues that no single modern group now meets all Marx's subjective conditions?

G A Cohen

Which Engels text allows proletarian political dominance even when workers are not a majority?

Principles of Communism

What does Engels call proletarian dominance when workers themselves form the majority?

direct

Which country does Engels use as an example of direct proletarian dominance?

England

What does Engels call proletarian dominance when workers are not themselves the majority?

indirect

Which groups could support indirect proletarian dominance according to Engels?

small peasants and petty bourgeois

Why could non-proletarian groups support proletarian political dominance according to Engels?

their political interests become dependent on the proletariat

How could a growing unemployed population fit Engels's idea of indirect proletarian dominance?

it could become politically dependent on organised workers

Which thinkers contribute to the debate over whether the proletariat still meets the subjective conditions for revolution?

Marx, Cohen, Engels and Gorz

Which Luxemburg text develops her theory of capitalist accumulation?

The Accumulation of Capital

When was The Accumulation of Capital published?

1913

What aspect of Marx does Luxemburg criticise while still defending capitalist downfall?

his economic theory

What broader Marxist theory does Luxemburg's accumulation argument seek to defend?

historical inevitability of capitalism's downfall