marx the mode of production

Büke Doğruoğlu
2011208105
SOC 371 Midterm Essay
Instructor: Abbas Vali For Karl Marx, economics is the base of every society. Other areas such as military, art, ideology, law, culture etc. are superstructures that are constructed on the base of economics. He argues economic relations have social effects and these social and economic relations are the core of Marx’s philosophy. He advances the concept of the mode of production so that the structure of production relations can be analyzed. This concept is a theoretical and abstract tool for Marx’s sociological analysis and his historical periodization. He advances this concept in
The German Ideology in the year of 1846. In my paper, I want to analyze how Marx conceptualizes the mode of production and how it is related to his other analyses.
Marx has a dualistic understanding of production, for him every production is indeed a double production: production of material goods and production of social relations of production.
His theorization of the mode of production is a combination of “forces of production” and
“social relations of production”. The former has two categories: labourer and non­labourer. Both of them have taken different forms throughout the history. Labourer has become slaves, serfs and wage workers whereas non­labourer has become slave masters, feudal lords and capitalists.
Forces of production also includes the means of production, which is generally land in pre­capitalism and capital in capitalism. The latter includes the property relations. For Marx, property is not just owning something but also owning the right of exclusion. If you own

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something, you have the right to exclude others from using it or to withdraw it from the production process. Marx argues that labour is the essential source of property and if somebody owns accumulated property, he actually owns accumulated labour which he has taken from labourers. As a consequence of this, labourers are alienated from their own products in capitalist property relations. The modes of production shape the relationship between labourer and non­labourer by social relations of production. Owning the means of production makes someone a powerful actor in all areas of life. The class conflict is the conflict of haves and not haves between labourers and non­labourers. If production were not actually double production, the concept of “surplus” would be clear that it’s the excess of production over consumption.
However, this is not the case since in the production is a double process. In capitalism, even if production does not exceed consumption, there may be still surplus. Since, non­labourers are alienated from their own products and do not have the purchasing power to consume the goods which they themselves produced in the factory. “..the labourer is not a capitalist, although he brings a commodity to market, namely his own skin.”1 Social relations of production play a huge role on Marx’s “The Theory of Exploitation”. “The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself.”2 This exploitation takes different forms throughout the history, as the forces of production and social relations of production change.
Marx has a materialist conception of history. The economy and its relations are the base of the society for him s cited above and the mode of production of material life determines the social, political and intellectual life process in general.3 In this conceptualization, he was affected

1

Marx, Karl. Das Kapital. Vol. 2. New York: Modern Library, 1936. 211. Print. Marx, Karl. "Estranged Labour,." Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. New York: International,
1964. 30. Print.
3
Marx, Karl. Preface and Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Peking: Foreign
Languages, 1976. Print.
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by Hegel’s understanding of history as a process whose aim is to achieve universal freedom via self­consciousness and reason. Marx finds Hegel’s method revolutionary but false. He turns
Hegel’s philosophy on his head. 4 Whereas Hegel’s starting point is consciousness, Marx’s is social and economic relations. Marx argues that consciousness comes as a result of these relations. “ It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”5 Also for Hegel, the history moves towards the universal freedom, while for Marx it moves towards the “developed communism”.
He argues that the dynamic force of the history is contradiction between classes, class conflicts and it is the power which makes history move towards its goal to achieve developed communism. His concept of the mode of production is the most powerful actor in his historical periodization ,because what he sees as the dynamic force of history­ the class conflict­ occurs between the forces of production via social relations of production. For Marx, the succession of the history is actually the succession of modes of production. As cited above, both forces of production (labourer and non­labourer) and social relations of production have taken different forms throughout the history. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, that each time ended, either in the revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.” 6

4

Craib, Ian. Classical Social Theory. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. 13. Print. Marx, Karl. Preface and Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Peking: Foreign
Languages, 1976. Print.
6
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party,. New York: International, 1848. Print.
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For Marx, starting point of the history­ in terms of mode of production­ is “ancient communism”. There were no class differentiation and it was a subsistence economy in other words people only consumed what they produced and there were no market, exchange or property relationship.
The next step in Marx’s conception of history is “slavery”. In the slave mode of production, the forces of production is labourer: the slave and non­labourer: the slave master.
Slaves are not legally free, they are owned by another man. They do not just buy the labour power but also the labourer. What is commodified is the labourer, the man himself.
After slavery, Marx moves to the mode of production of “feudalism”. Forces of production has now taken the form of serfs as labourers and feudal lords as non­labourers. Serfs are not themselves commodities like slaves are, but they are tied to the land and the master of it.
They can not move to another place. What defines the class conflict by means of production is the land in feudal mode of production. With the advances in technology and techniques feudal mode of production demolishes and paves the way for a new mode of production. “The hand­mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam­mill society with the industrial capitalist.”7 The following mode of production in Marx’s conception of history is the capitalist mode of production. In capitalism, what’s bought and sought is the capacity to produce, in other words: the labour power, not the labourer itself. Unlike slavery and feudalism, men are not tied to any place or anyone with extra economic or political power. Men are legally free and there is no coercion to make them sell their labour power in the market. They sell or not, it’s just their

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Marx, Karl. The Poverty of Philosophy. New York: International, 1963. Print.

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choice in a theoretical way. Of course, in reality there is an economic compulsion for them to go to market because of their economic needs. Labourer: the wage worker and non­labourer: the capitalist are related to each other by means of capital and economic needs. They both need each other to survive. Although subject is legally free, indeed it is tied to the market and capitalists by social relations of production. Marx defines this situation “legal fiction of equality” and argues that there is a powerful network of exploitation before the equality in terms of legality. Since capitalists own the means of production, they also hold the power in their hands like it has been always the same in the history. “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas,
i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it.” 8 In society, there are mechanisms that create the misrepresentation of reality. These are created by social classes, which are indeed forces of production in his theory of the mode of production.
These misrepresentations take place in two ways: masking the reality or falsification of reality.
The reality is made upside down. The false equality of subject is the foundation of capitalist exchange relationships. Actually, labourer and non­labourer are by no means equal to each other, but the legal system falsely represents it this way so that the reality of capitalism can be accepted and adapted to by everyone. In Marx’s own words “In a social order dominated by capitalist production even the non­capitalist producer is gripped by capitalist conceptions.”9

8

Marx, Karl. Preface and Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Peking: Foreign
Languages, 1976. Print.
9
Marx, Karl. "Cost Price and Profit." Capital; a Critique of Political Economy. Vol. III. New York:
International, 1894. 39. Print.

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Marx argues that capitalism has contradictions in itself and it will eventually collapse. He defines modern capitalist industry as "a series of periods of moderate activity, prosperity, overproduction, crisis and stagnation"10 The production relations exclude labourers from the consumption of their own products and wage labourers become poorer and poorer. However, more goods are being produced and market is getting bigger and bigger. Who will consume these goods if most of people do not have enough purchasing power? Eventually the profit rates will decrease and the conflict will occur. We can see the idea of collapse, also in Engel’s writings
“..this mode of production (capitalism), by virtue of its own development, drives towards the point at which it makes itself impossible."11 They argue that proletariat will emerge as a new class and “by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as eps away by force the old conditions of production then it will, along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of class antagonisms, and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class. “12
For Marx, the capitalism will eventually collapse and it will pave the way for a classless society which are the last two modes of production in his historical periodization: “socialism” and “developed communism” which lead to the universal freedom. In the socialist mode of production, there is no private property and no distinction between labourer and non­labourer and consequently no relationship of exploitation by owning the means of production. What’s produced is consumed, it’s a subsistence economy. The next mode of production is developed communism which is the most advanced mode of production for Marx and it means achieving of

10

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Capital; a Critique of Political Economy. Vol. I. New York: International,
1867. Print.
11
Engels, Friedrich. Anti­Dühring. 1878. Print.
12
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party,. New York: International, 1848.
Print.

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the universal freedom. This ideal society of Marx’s, may also be called upper­stage communism.
There are no clear productive forces and no classes in the society. Logic and science are used in communal activities to achieve common good. What differentiates this ideal state of communism from the ancient communism which is the most primitive mode of production, is the usage of logic and science. Menkind have escaped from the boundaries of forces of production and social relations and conflicts they caused. There are no more surplus and accumulation of labour in terms of capitalistic mode of production. People are not forced to go to market so that they can sell their labour power or themselves as commodities to the non­labourers because of the economic, extra economic or political powers. The legal fiction of equality has demolished and there are no more misrepresentations of reality. Reality is the reality of everyone and the common good. “The reality, which communism is creating, is precisely the true basis for rendering it impossible that anything should exist independently of individuals, insofar as reality is only a product of the preceding intercourse of individuals themselves.”13 People are not just legally but “really” free in the developed communist mode of production. Universal freedom has been reached and the aim of the history is completed. “Communism... is the genuine resolution of the antagonism between man and nature and between man and man; it is the true resolution of the conflict between existence and essence, objectification and self­affirmation, freedom and necessity, individual and species. It is the riddle of history solved and knows itself as the solution.”14 Shortly, Marx’s history is the history of modes of production. His succession of the history as a line 1) ancient communist mode of production 2) slave mode of production
13

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The German Ideology. Vol. I. New York: International, 1972. Print. Marx, Karl. "Private Property and Communism,." Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. New
York: International, 1964. 43. Print.
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3) feudal mode of production­ capital mode of production 4) socialist mode of production and finally 5) developed communist mode of production as the achievement of universal freedom.
Every mode of production ­except developed communism (since it’s the ideal type for Marx)­ eventually experiences a conflict and is changed with another mode of production by revolution.
Slavery paved the way for feudalism as feudalism did for capitalism and capitalism will do the same for socialism and developed communism. The achievement of the ideal system for Marx will happen by social revolution in the area of economics in the modes of production.
To conclude, Marx is affected by Hegel’s understanding of history but changed it its exact opposite arguing that the bases of the history and every social phenomena are indeed economic and production relations which he sees as the base of all other structures. He used the concept of the mode of production as a theoretical tool to analyze society and the history. He sees the history as an economic issue, the succession of different modes of production. Orderly: ancient communist, slave, feudal, capitalist, socialist and developed communist mode of productions. Class conflicts are the power which is able to change the modes of production from one to another. He argues that all the class conflicts will eventually be demolished and the ideal mode of production: the developed communism will be achieved. The development will be finished with the achievement of universal freedom with developed communist mode of production. 8

BIBLIOGRAPHY ­ MLA ­ Marx, Karl. Das Kapital. Vol. 2. New York: Modern Library, 1936. Print.
Marx, Karl. "Estranged Labour,." Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. New York:
International, 1964. Print.
Marx, Karl. Preface and Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.
Peking: Foreign Languages, 1976. Print.
Craib, Ian. Classical Social Theory. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. Print.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party,. New York: International,
1848. Print.
Marx, Karl. The Poverty of Philosophy. New York: International, 1963. Print.
Engels, Friedrich. Anti­Dühring. 1878. Print.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The German Ideology. Vol. I. New York: International, 1972.
Print.
Marx, Karl. The Poverty of Philosophy. New York: International, 1963. Print.
"Marxists Internet Archive." Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
"Latest News and Comment." World Socialist Movement. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. "Mode of Production." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Nov. 2014. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. .

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Bibliography: Marx, Karl. Das Kapital. Vol. 2. New York: Modern Library, 1936. Print.   Marx, Karl. "Estranged Labour,." Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. New York:  International, 1964. Print.   Marx, Karl. Preface and Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.  Peking: Foreign Languages, 1976. Print.   Craib, Ian. Classical Social Theory. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. Print.   Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party,. New York: International,  1848. Print.   Marx, Karl. The Poverty of Philosophy. New York: International, 1963. Print.   Engels, Friedrich. Anti­Dühring. 1878. Print.   Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The German Ideology. Vol. I. New York: International, 1972.  Print.   Marx, Karl. The Poverty of Philosophy. New York: International, 1963. Print.   "Marxists Internet Archive." Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.   "Latest News and Comment." World Socialist Movement. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.   "Mode of Production." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Nov. 2014. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. .