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Theory: Marxism/ Neo-Marxism - Coggle Diagram
Theory: Marxism/ Neo-Marxism
Marxism
4. Base & Superstructure
(cake analogy)
Base
- means of production
. Raw materials, land, machines & tools
. Relations of production - bourgeoise dominate proletariat and commodities and capital
Icing
Religion, art, laws, politics - shapes what we consume.
. Maintains capitalist dominance.
5. Ideology
Marx & Ideology
Not a political ideology
. Political ideas
False consciousness
. The superstructure and its ideology blind workers to their true conditions.
- Jost, Ledgerwood and Hardin (2008) -
ideology spread to the unconscious due to human needs to understand the world.
Freud & The Unconscious Mind
They argue that there are three levels to the mind:
Conscious Mind
Preconscious Mind
Unconscious Mind
3. Alienation
Capitalism has alienated us from our human nature
. Human nature is to produce
. Animals produce for themselves
. Workers produce for the community
Taylorism:
the worker controls 100% of the production process.
Capitalism:
division of labour the worker controls little of the production process.
communism will reconnect us with our human nature.
'... to hunt in the morning in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as i have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic' (Marx, 1845)
. It means that we are reconnecting us to bring creative.
2. The Problems of Capitalist Society
Capitalism has created new classes; bourgeoise, petit-bourgeoise & proletariat.
capitalism has brought many benefits and advancements.
. Revolutionising of production - capitalists reinvest in their business improving technology and productivity.
. Establish global connections - capitalism has allowed businesses to trade all over the world.
BUT
revolutionising has negative impacts:
. Technology leads to unemployment
. International monopolisation leads to the concentration of wealth.
1% to own 63% of the global wealth 2030 (House of Commons Library, 2018).
Exploitation of the proletariat
. As the WC have no means of production, they have nothing to sell in society but their labour.
. The proletariat has to enter contact with the bourgeoise and pay them the minimum to keep them active.
workers never receive full compensation for their work.
the products are owned and sold by their employer for profit.
surplus-value - workers receive less money than the value of their work.
Capitalism is unstable
. Cycles of boom and bust
. As each crises deepens the proletariat will become more class conscious.
6. Revolution
Communism can only be achieved through revolution
Abolish the state
Abolish private property with the means of production owned by the community.
Abolish alienation and ideological control
'Workers of the world unit! you have nothing to lose but your chains' (Engles & Marx, 1848)
The capitalist state
. The state - government, army, police, prisons, schools etc
Exists to support the bourgeoise.
. Stops the proletariat revolting.
1. Materialist Conception
'The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle' (Marx & Engles, 1888)
Historical Materialism
. Society changes based on which groups own the majority of materials needed to produce things for society - means of production.
. This creates a contradiction between those who own the materials and those who don't.
Dialectical Materialism
. Two contradictions come into conflict and create something new.
E.g. monarchy + bourgeoise = capitalism & water + fire = steam
Class Exploitation
. Every society that has historically existed has been based on a dominant class owning the means of production and a lower class who are exploited.
E.g. ancient societies - slaves are exploited by their owners
Feudal society - serps are exploited by the land owners (monarchs/ lords).
capitalist society - the proletariat is exploited by the bourgeoisie.
communist society - the class contradiction will end.
Evaluation
Unlike functionalists, Left realists, liberal feminists and Marxists do not believe capitalist society can be changed.
Functionalists - Marxists overemphasis conflict and ignore consensus in society.
Interactionists - Marxism is deterministic, they do no believe in free will and that we are products of the economy.
Neo-Marxism
Later Marxists try to explain why capitalism has remained.
. They do also develop new ways to overthrow capitalism.
. These perspectives have fallen into two perspectives.
Humanistic Marxism
- an interpretivist approach that incorporates interactionist understandings.
Hegemony
Influenced by interactionism, meaning they believe humans have free will.
. Wants to answer the question: 'Why do lower classes agree/ choose to be dominated by those in power?'
The bourgeoisie has control of the institutions that share ideas in society e.g. media, education, religion etc.
This means that perspectives/ interactionists/ information the WC engage with favour the ruling class dominate these institutions will stay in power.
. So long as the ruling class dominate these institutions will stay in power.
Gamsci
Ruling class hegemonic control is never complete because they are too few.
. The proletariat has dual consciousness - it is possible to see through the bourgeoise ideology.
To bring about social change the proletariat needs its own organic intellectuals to develop a counter-hegemony.
. A realistic alternative to communism is to lead people to socialism.
Gamsci
Criticised Marx because he ignores that humans have free will.
Bourgeoise control society in two ways;
. Coercion: the capitalist state uses force, so the WC accept their dominance (police, army, prisons etc).
. Hegemony: the bourgeoise use ideas to make the WC consent to their power.
Structural Marxism
- a positivist approach using scientific studies to analyse capitalism.
Disagrees with humanistic Marxism
. Free will is an illusion
. Humans are governed by special structures, which can be discovered through scientific enquiry.
Disagrees with classical Marxism
Too focused on Economics
Althusser
People are controlled on three levels:
2. Political Level:
control through all forms of organisation (political parties, football teams etc)
3. Ideological Level:
control through how people see themselves and the world around them.
1. Economic Level:
control through economics (the need to work).
Under capitalism, the economic level is the most dominant
. If we do not work, we cannot eat/ shelter
But the political and ideological levels are crucial to the survival of capitalism.
. The functions are performed by the representative state apparatus (RSA) and the ideological state apparatus (ISA)
Is Marxism useful today?
Strengths
Explains wealth inequality within society
. Why some have more than others globally and nationally.
Explains how power is manipulated in society.
. Ideology/ hegemony/ structure
Explains alienation
Weaknesses
Deterministic - global revolution has not happened.
Communism failed in Eastern Europe.
Capitalism is less effective due to choose their identity/ class is outdated.
Postmodernists - people are free to choose their identity/ class is outdated.