Preview

Using the Concept of Mode of Production Explain the Marxist Theory of Conflict Essay Example

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1524 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Using the Concept of Mode of Production Explain the Marxist Theory of Conflict Essay Example
USING THE CONCEPT OF MODE OF PRODUCTION EXPLAIN THE MARXIST THEORY OF CONFLICT. GIVE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.
The term mode of production derives from the work of Karl Marx (1818–1883), Marx used the term mode of production to refer to the specific organization of economic production in a given society. A mode of production includes the means of production used by a given society, such as factories and other facilities, machines, and raw materials. It also includes labor and the organization of the labor force. According to Marx, history evolves through the interaction between the mode of production and the relations of production. The mode of production constantly evolves toward a realization of its fullest productive capacity, but this evolution creates antagonisms between the classes of people defined by the relations of production—owners and workers. Marx characterized human history in terms of the way in which ownership of the means of production was the most important single variable involved in the characterization of each distinct period (or epoch) in history. He identified five major epoch; Primitive communism - characteristic of early human history where people held everything in common. The Ancient epoch (slave society) - societies based upon slavery where the means of production was owned and controlled by an aristocratic elite. Feudal society - where land was the most important means of production. This was owned / controlled by an aristocratic class, the majority of people belonging to a peasant class. Capitalist society - where technological development (machinery etc.) has allowed a bourgeois class to exploit factory forms of production for their private gain. The aristocracy (landowners) have either been marginalized or co-opted into the Bourgeoisie whilst the majority of people are wage-labourers (they own little or no capital). The main relations of production in this epoch are between employers and employees (those who own and use capital and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Marx then goes into the first part of the body of his manifesto entitled "Bourgeois and Proletarians." In this part, he goes into how society started communal but then became more unequal as time went on. Systems such as Feudalism, Mercantilism, and Capitalism benefited from the use of exploitation. He first introduces the idea that economic concerns of a nation drive history, and that the struggle between the rich bourgeoisie and the hard working proletariat would eventually lead to Communism. He goes on and on about how the bourgeois have always got what they wanted. Marx reflected more on the negatives committed by the bourgeois than the positives. He states the bourgeoisie "has agglomerated population, centralized means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands." (Marx, p.8) He then describes the proletarians, or the labor class, and how they were formed, how they have suffered, and how they must overcome their struggles. Marx declares that this “dangerous class,” the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution." (Marx, p.15) This began an inevitable revolution where the proletariats take over and dethrone the bourgeoisie.…

    • 1048 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In aversion to the issues of capitalism concerning wage labor and abuse of the laborer by the employer, Karl Marx and Frederick Engles saw the ills of society in the convention of private property. In his own words, Marx said that communism could be summed up in one sentence, “abolition of private property” (The Communist Manifesto, 23). Marx saw private property in the industrial age as the “antagonism of capital and wage labor,” (The Communist Manifesto, 23). The positive results of industry only allowed the bourgeois to obtain more capital and hire more labor. Capital, therefore, is for the bourgeois a means to accumulate labor for the individual.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Karl Marx opens The Communist Manifesto stating two facts he believes about Communism. The first is that "Communism is already acknowledged by all European Powers to be itself a Power" (pg. 473). Second he states that, “Communists should "openly publish their views and tendencies" (473). The first section titled "Bourgeois and Proletarians" is an illustration of why Marx believes that all of history is based on class struggles. The Bourgeois represent the rich business and landowners, and Proletarians are the poor workers. Marx goes on to say that the government is basically in place only to further the cause of the evil Bourgeois. In Marx's theory, history is shaped by economic relations alone. I disagree with this view. I fell that Marx should look at other elements such as religion, culture, ideology, and even the individual human being. These factors play a very little role.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his book, “Communist Manifesto,” Marx stresses the importance of communism or the publication of private property. As stated above, John Locke was the influencer of human basic rights, which included the right to own private property. The development of the Capitalist soon came after this right was made. Capitalists were key contributors to the rise of the industrial revolution but also to the fall of small shop owners. These shop owners were without income and the only way to provide a source was by working for these wealthy owners. A clear distinction between these two types people was their level of income and property which brought on the social classes. There was an oppressor and the oppressed. Before I go further with any explanations, this picture here of classes shows that only one class is progressing. The oppressor is the class that prospers in context of human progression through technological advancements. “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other- bourgeoisie and proletariat (Marx 9).” The bourgeoisie were the capitalist while the proletariat was the lower working class. Separation between the two came along with the industrial revolution. Romanticist like Marx would oppose this as human progression because as a whole we aren’t all included in this promotion. It seems as the Capitalists are being set up on a pedestal…

    • 2004 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Marx believed class struggles had existed throughout history and concluded that because of industrialization, society had dwindled down to two classes: the proletariat (laborers) and the bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production). He viewed class struggles and industry as harmful to humanity because they allowed the bourgeoisie to exploit the proletariat.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Marx views history as being determined by economics, which for him is the source of class differences. History is described in The Communist Manifesto as a series of conflicts between oppressing classes and oppressed classes. According to this view of history, massive changes occur in a society when new technological capabilities allow a portion of the oppressed class to destroy the power of the oppressing class.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prominent Karl Marx’s theory on the division of labor and the social class structure, as outlined by his concept of “the mode of production”, directly relates to social equality, ideology, and social economic power. “The mode of production” is understood to be the basis from which the majority of other social concepts, such as the relations between social classes, political and legal systems, work relations, morality and ideology, and many other phenomena, arise. These social concepts form the superstructure, for which the economic system forms the base. This theory is also related to ordinary people’s struggle for truth, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness also known as “American Dream”.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One basic tenet Karl Marx's defines in his famous Manifesto of the Communist Party is the distinguishing characteristics of two opposing social classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie also known as the “capitalist” are the ones who own the means of production. Because of their wealth, they also have the power to control pretty much everything. The proletariat known as the “workers” do not own nor have any control of the means of production but earn money from the bourgeoisie by providing their labor for very little money.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Marx and Engels stood firm in their belief that the main theme of industrial capitalism was freedom. They wanted the proletarians to have the freedom to become a complete human being by recreating oneself through free choices. They accredited a high importance to the human persona and thought that making a life was separate from producing an item for another person. Marx and Engels express their concerns for the human under capitalism through Communist Manifesto. Capitalism forces individual self-advance but only in preventive and misleading ways because almost everything the bourgeois society creates will only exist to be torn down. For Marx and Engels, capitalism is approaching a massive climax where those who are being crushed by it are overcoming the people who benefit from it. Marx recognizes, however, that the working class has no way of seizing property since none of them own anything themselves, consequently they will have to tear down and destroy all private ownership which will result in class itself disappearing. In such a notion that capitalism is seen as a "runaway train," Marx and Engels dispute the next stages in this historical dialectic is for the proletarians to own the ways of production, an arrangement where there will be a transposition of society so that those who are lacking power will now have it once they distinguish their…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Viet Nam War

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Viet Nam war is the one of the most intense war in Indochina. The war between the north of Vietnam with support from American and south of Vietnam with support from soviet.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This entails the resources used to produce the products like the plants, equipment and materials. The mode of production regularly develops towards an acknowledgment of its maximum capacity, but this development produces conflicts between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. In capitalism, the capitalists come up with products and for them to make the most money they force the employees to work hard while giving them very minimal compensation. This is why no matter how hard they work they are unable to improve their lives. They eventually realize that they have to stop the capitalists from abusing them.…

    • 2081 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    testing

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Much of Marx's work was to do with Social stratification, but it was mostly concerned with class. Marx believed that societies such as hunters and gatherers existed in a Primitive Communist state. Here there was equality and no stratification within the society. However in later years came the introduction of agriculture, thus creating the concept of ownership. The lord of the manor…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Karl Marx in all stratified societies there are two major social groups: a ruling class and a subject class. The ruling class derives its power from its ownership and control of the forces of production. The ruling class exploits and oppresses the subject class. As a result there is a basic conflict of interest between the two classes. The various institutions of society such as the legal and political system are instruments of ruling class domination and serve to further its interests. Marx believed that western society developed through four main epochs-primitive communism, ancient society, feudal society and capitalist society.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Karl Marx Research Paper

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Karl Heinrich Marx was born in Germany in 1818 and died in 1883. He imagined human society as made of classes, the nature of which was dictated in turn by the main system of production and ownership. Marx argued that capitalism is inherently unstable, tense with flaws and prone to deep crises. Capitalism is dominated by the wealthiest corporations and devoted to profit above all else. If people had followed Marx ideologies more closely than we might have been able to avoid our current environmental predicaments, especially his argument against capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the factors of production (capital, land, and labor) employed in the generation of profits. Marx pointed out that Capitalism creates a system where there are basically two classes of people. The workers and the exploiters. The exploiters take advantage of the workers by making a profit from the worker's labor and the workers resent the exploiters. As a result of the conflict between them, eventually, the workers will revolt and take over society themselves. They will create a worker only society where no one realizes an advantage over anyone else. It is a very simplified view of the nature of a relationship between those who achieve success and those who do not. However, Capitalism requires endless growth of production doubt…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Heaven Is For Real

    • 441 Words
    • 1 Page

    In the movie, Heaven is for Real, Todd Burpo retells the story of his son, Colton. Todd…

    • 441 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays