Bourgeoisie And Burawoy's The Marxian Class Theory

There are but a few people in history that have attempted to profoundly change the way society looks at itself, and those who do have not always left a legacy as grandiose as Marx's. A highly original thinker, unprecedented and unhampered by disciplinary boundaries of his time (Carver, 1996), the magnitude of Marx's accomplishments in the domain of economics and sociology is undisputed by both academics and the general public alike, with the former often leaning towards critiquing, rather than lauding the ideas, analyses and warnings that he bequeathed to us (Toews, 2017). Attempting to dissect Marx's opus within the confines of this concept note would be an exercise in futility, therefore I will predominantly draw on a few key points: Marx's
This claim hinges on the assumption of the existence of two principal classes in society: (1) Bourgeoisie and (2) Proletariat, which have different and conflicting characteristics (Parkin, 1979). A class is defined as a group which shares a common interest, is aware of that fact, and undertakes collective action with the aim of advancing that interest (Andrew, 1983). As such, the bourgeoisie at first represented businessmen such as merchants, bankers and entrepreneurs who acted the role of financial intermediaries between feudal landlords and the peasants. However, with the invention of the steam machine and the onset of the Industrial Revolution and subsequently industrial capitalism, the bourgeoisie became the ruling class due to possessing both the means of production and the means of coercion. (Marx & Engels, 1848). The proletariat, by extension, represents a social class which has no claim over the means of production, nor any influence on the legal system or police forces which the bourgeoisie employ as means of coercion (Marx, 1848). The goal of this class, according to Marx, is to displace the ruling class, developing a society in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of
Essentially, through involuntary inclusion into the capitalist system the numerous proletariat remained undeveloped, so by seizing the means of production through voluntary collective action they will flourish. (Singer, 1980) Economically, the redistribution of property and the subsequent founding of a socialist state would lead to an authoritarian political regime (Hayek, 1944), which would not be sustainable in the long run due to the ever evolving complexity of international relations that such states would have, provided that they choose not to pursue an isolationist economic rationale. (Bellamy,