How much do you know about the topic “Marxism”? Not much? Worry not, let's dig in and find out more about this topic.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this topic, you are expected to;
Marxism refers to a method of socioeconomic analysis that views social conflict and class relations using a materialist interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social transformation. Marxism originates from the works of German philosophers Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx.
Marxism makes use of a methodology, now referred to as historical materialism, in order to analyze as well as critique, the development of class society and mainly of capitalism and the roles of class struggles in systemic social, economic and political change. The Marxist theory argues that, in capitalist societies, class conflict arises as a result of the contradiction between the material interests of the exploited proletariat, the bourgeoisie and the oppressed. Proletariat refers to a class of wage laborers that are employed to produce goods and services. The bourgeoisie refers to the ruling class owning the means of production and extracts its wealth through appropriation of the surplus product that is produced by the proletariat in the form of profit.
Marxism has developed into many different branches and schools of thought, with the result that there is not a single definitive Marxist theory. Many Marxian schools place greater emphasis on specific aspects of classical Marxism while modifying or rejecting other aspects. Some schools of thought combine Marxian concepts and non-Marxian concepts. This has led to contradictory conclusions.
Marxism has had great impact on many fields like; media studies, science studies, anthropology, archaeology, sociology, history, geography, criminology, film theory, philosophy and many more.
Marxism analyzes the economic activities and material conditions that are required to fulfill human material needs to explain social phenomena in any given society.
It makes the assumption that the form of economic organization, or the mode of production, influences all the other social phenomena that include political institutions, legal systems, wider social relations, ideologies and aesthetics.
As production forces such as technology improve, existing forms of organizing production tend to become obsolete hindering further progress.
Karl Marx considered class conflicts the driving force of human history as the recurring conflicts have manifested themselves as distinct transitional stages of development in Western Europe. He therefore designated human history as including four development stages in relations of production:
SOCIAL CLASSES
Marx groups social classes based on two criteria: control over the labor power of others and ownership of means of production. With regard to this criterion, Marx identified the social stratification of the mode of production of capitalists with the social groups below;
