Marxism and Structuralism
Marxism and Structuralism:
• Marx concerned with causes of conflict in society and believed that it was the result of struggle between different socio-economic classes.
• saying capitalism as a bondage from which people strive to be liberated.
• Theory of history based on historical materialism, where the system of economic production determined structures of society. All history was the history of class struggle between a ruling group, from which [came] a new economic, political and social system.
• Before capitalism, ownership of land formed the basis of political power - feudalism, followed by Capitalism which also contained the seeds of its own destruction.
• Capitalism built on principles of private ownership and the pursuit of profit. Conflict between Bourgeois and Proletarian classes – between those who owed the means of production and those who worked in return for a wage. The difference between what proletariat produced and wages known as surplus value / or profit – and capitalism driven by the accumulation of this surplus value or profit.
• surplus value achieved through search for new markets, constantly driving down wages to extract more surplus value from their workers, or by replacing labour with new technologies - eg machines
• Capitalism would collapse as workers became too poor to afford the goods that they themselves produced and as new markets were exhausted leading to revolutionary change.
• Capitalism manipulative with in-built tensions and contradictions which would cause it to collapse.
• Human societies made up of various institutions which changed over time with economics as the main driving force. Collapse of Capitalism would lead to a socialist order with extensive government control over production and distribution until the last elements of capitalism were removed from society. Finally the state would wither away with the establishment of a communist system.
• Link later: “Human history for Marx is a laborious struggle to
• Marx concerned with causes of conflict in society and believed that it was the result of struggle between different socio-economic classes.
• saying capitalism as a bondage from which people strive to be liberated.
• Theory of history based on historical materialism, where the system of economic production determined structures of society. All history was the history of class struggle between a ruling group, from which [came] a new economic, political and social system.
• Before capitalism, ownership of land formed the basis of political power - feudalism, followed by Capitalism which also contained the seeds of its own destruction.
• Capitalism built on principles of private ownership and the pursuit of profit. Conflict between Bourgeois and Proletarian classes – between those who owed the means of production and those who worked in return for a wage. The difference between what proletariat produced and wages known as surplus value / or profit – and capitalism driven by the accumulation of this surplus value or profit.
• surplus value achieved through search for new markets, constantly driving down wages to extract more surplus value from their workers, or by replacing labour with new technologies - eg machines
• Capitalism would collapse as workers became too poor to afford the goods that they themselves produced and as new markets were exhausted leading to revolutionary change.
• Capitalism manipulative with in-built tensions and contradictions which would cause it to collapse.
• Human societies made up of various institutions which changed over time with economics as the main driving force. Collapse of Capitalism would lead to a socialist order with extensive government control over production and distribution until the last elements of capitalism were removed from society. Finally the state would wither away with the establishment of a communist system.
• Link later: “Human history for Marx is a laborious struggle to