Marx predicted that capitalism within a socioeconomic system would inevitably create internal tensions between social classes leading to its demise and replacement by a new system, communism. For Marx, the concept of class has always existed in society. Historically, a society has always been arranged into various orders of social rank. A defining characteristic of capitalism however, is that “it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (Marx and Engels 1848).
Thirdly the family acts as a comfort for the stresses and frustrations of working class men they are there to ‘Cushion the main provider’. Lastly the family as a unit of consumption buys the goods and services provided by capitalism. These functions benefit the minority in power, the bourgeoisie, and the economy. The functions disadvantage the working class society, the proletariat. One way the family serves capitalism is the socialisation of the young into the ruling class ideology.
In capitalist societies, workers are employed to produce goods which are sold by their employers at a profit. Only a bit of the profit ends up in the workers wage, most of its kept by the employer. Marx said that if workers were allowed to notice the unfairness of this, they’d revolt. So, to avoid revolution the capitalist system shapes the superstructure to make sure that the workers accept their lot in life. Institutions like the family, education and religion lead individuals into accepting the inequalities or capitalism.
One of the pioneers of conflict theories is Karl Marx. He sought to explain the struggles between social classes. Marx saw society as a polarization between two dominant classes: the Capitalists and the Workers (Robbins et al., 2012). Marx defined these classes as: property is concentrated in the hands of the Capitalists and the Workers are forced to sell their labor to the privileged owners (Capitalists), thus creating a divide between the classes and creating oppression (Robbins et al, 2012). The effects of the class differences include exploitation, poverty, and the control of ideas by the wealthy.
The society’s superstructure or culture comprising of laws, morality, religion and politics. These are determined by society’s infrastructure, methods of production and exchange. He sees in history the conflicts that existed between different classes of people in society – the ruling class and the serfs during feudal times. The French Revolution brought an end to feudalism. But during his time, Marx witnessed the industrial Revolution bringing about conflicts between the capitalists and the proletariat, creating two classes in society – the rich and the poor.
INTRODUCTION Several outstanding philosophers such as Marx (1844), Kierkegaard (1941), Rousseau (1950), and Nietzsche (1954) paid serious attention to the notion of alienation. They strongly believed that alienation existed in the world and characterized it for us in such ways that we couldn't help but accept it as part of human reality. Marx was the most closely associated with and thus made the most contributions to the concept of alienation. According to Marx, alienation refers to the split between a human's existence (material) and essence (soul). Marx discusses alienation in a relatively restricted context-namely, the lives of wage workers in the early capitalist society.
Wealthy members of these societies created ideologies which blamed many of the problems of working-class people on their morals and ethics. Starting around 1917, a number of countries became ruled ostensibly in the interests of the working class. While arguments over standards of living and potential growth rates have occurred in academic history and sociology, the development indexes of these countries are often higher than other countries of equivalent gross domestic product. However, additional criticisms have been leveled at these countries from authors who criticize the presence of massive human rights abuses which impacted primarily on workers, and for the lack of democracy within and amongst the working
According to Marx, this economic system which he termed capitalism created an exploitative relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, since the proletariat had little or no control over the distribution of profits and the labour which they provided (Giddens 2001:12). For Marx, capitalism is not only seen to be an unjust and oppressive system of economic production, but also one that exploits, one that limits man from his full capability, separates man from the products of his labour, and
Both Lenin’s theory of Imperialism and Lipton’s theory of Urban Bias derive from Marxist’s view on capitalism, which demonstrates the parasitic relationship between two parties. This parasitic relationship separates society into classes, creating ruling and ruled classes, the ruling classes which receive most of the benefits and profits due to their monopolization of the factors of production, causing under development in the ruled party or class. Lenin’s theory of Imperialism which was first published in 1916 stated that Imperialism was the highest stage of capitalism. Imperialism is the monopolization of one country on the factors of production of another country or colony, placing most of the wealth in the hands of the more powerful and dominating country, creating underdevelopment in the other. Lenin noted five stages that lead to Imperialism, the first of which is The Concentration of Production and the Creation of Monopolies.
His theory on education is described as a two-class system: the capitalist class and the working class. The capitalist class, named after the bourgeoisie, are the minority class and work as employees who own the means of production such as the land, factories, machinery, etc. They make profit by treating the working class, named after the proletariat, people as slaves and by exploiting them. The working class, who are controlled by the bourgeoisie, are forced to work and use all their labour/ working power to serve the capitalist. As a result, they have no option to not work as they have a poor status in society and work under capitalism is poorly paid, alienating, unsatisfying and something workers have no control of.