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MARXISM (KEY CONCEPTS (MATERIALISM - Human beings have material needs,…
MARXISM
KEY CONCEPTS
- MATERIALISM - Human beings have material needs, such as food, clothing... therefore must work to meet them
- DIVISION OF LABOUR - How the forces of production of divided into classes that own the means of production and classes that are labourers
- PRIMITIVE COMMUNISM - In early stages of human history, there were no classes, everyone worked and everything was shared ( classless society )
- SURPLUS PRODUCT - The class who own the means of production exploit the labour of others for their own benefit, they control the difference between what the labourers actually produce and what is needed to keep them alive and working
- CAPITALISM - The ownership of private property and pursuit of wealth
- BOURGEOISIE - Capitalist class/ ruling class
- PROLETARIAT - The working class
- IMMISERATION - Competition forces capitalists to pay the lowest wages possible, causing impoverishment of the proletariat
- CLASS POLARISATION - Society divides into a minority capitalist class and a majority working class
- IDEOLOGY - Set of beliefs that serve the interests of a dominant group by justifying their privileged position, at the expense of another group
- ALIENATION - Feeling of social isolation because an individual or group feel a lack of power to control their lives
- COMMUNISM - Communal ownership
- WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF CAPITALISM?
- Firstly, unlike slaves or serfs, the proletariat are legally free and separated from the means of production.
- Because they do not own any means of production, they have to sell their labour power to the bourgeoisie in return for wages in order to survive.
- Secondly, through competition between capitalists, ownership of the means of production becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
- This competition drives small independent prodcuers into the ranks of the proletariat, until ultimately the vast majority are proletarianised.
- Competition also forces capitalists to pay the lowest wages possible, causing the immiseration (impoverishment) of the proletariat.
- Thirdly, capitalism continually expands the forces of production in its pursuit of profit.
- Production becomes concentrated in ever-larger units. Meanwhile, technological advances de-skill the workforce.
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- HOW DID CAPITALISM DEVELOP?
- Capitalism developed by the profits made by production.
- People developed tools, machines and so on to assist in production.
- Overtime, production grew and developed
- A division of labour develops which rises to a division between two classes; A class that owns the means of production and a class of labourers.
- ACCORDING TO MARX, WHY IS ALIENATION ALWAYS GOING TO BE FEATURE OF CAPITALIST SOCIETIES?
- Marx believes that our true nature is based on our capacity to create things to meet our needs.
- Alienation exists in all class societies, because the owners control the production process for their own needs.
- HOW DOES MARX DEFINE THE STATE AND HOW DOES IT HELP MAINTAIN CAPITALISM?
- Marx defines the state as 'armed bodies of men' - the army, police, prisons, courts and so on.
- The state exists to protect the interests of the class of owners who control it. As such they form the ruling class.
- The use the state as a weapon in the class struggle, to protect their property, suppress opposition and prevent revolution.
- WHAT DOES HE PREDICT WILL HAPPEN AND WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN?
- Marx predicted the ultimate victory of the proletarian revolution and the establishment of communist society on a world scale.
- He expected the revolution to occur first of all in the most advanced capitalist societies.
- WHY DOES CAPITALISM SOW THE SEEDS OF ITS OWN DESTRUCTION?
- By polarising the classes, bringing the proletariat together in ever-larger numbers, and driving down their wages, capitalism creates the conditions under which the working class can develop a consciousness of its own economic and political interests in opposition to those of its exploiters.
