Name: Nadir Mehmood

ID No: 13214
Subject: International Relations
Section: B
Class: BS English
Q.1 Write a short paragraph about the life of Karl Marx?

Ans: Karl Marx life

Karl Heinrich Marx was born on 5 May 1818 in Trier in western German, the son of a successful
Jewish lawyer. Marx studied law in Bonn and Berlin, but was also introduced to the ideas of Hegel
and Feuerbach. In 1841, he received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Jena. In
1843, after a short spell as editor of a liberal newspaper in Cologne, Marx and his wife Jenny
moved to Paris, a hotbed of radical thought. There he became a revolutionary communist and
befriended his lifelong collaborator, Friedrich Engels. Expelled from France, Marx spent two years
in Brussels, where his partnership with Engels intensified. They co-authored the pamphlet 'The
Communist Manifesto' which was published in 1848 and asserted that all human history had been
based on class struggles, but that these would ultimately disappear with the victory of the
proletariat.

In 1849, Marx moved to London, where he was to spend the remainder of his life. For a number
of years, his family lived in poverty but the wealthier Engels was able to support them to an
increasing extent. Gradually, Marx emerged from his political and spiritual isolation and produced
his most important body of work, 'Das Kapital'. The first volume of this 'bible of the working class'
was published in his lifetime, while the remaining volumes were edited by Engels after his friend's
death.

In his final years, Karl Marx was in creative and physical decline. He spent time at health spas and
was deeply distressed by the death of his wife, in 1881, and one of his daughters. He died on 14
March 1883 and was buried at High gate Cemetery in London.

Q.2 Briefly explain the theory of Marxism in your own words?

Ans: Marxism

Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl Marx. It examines the
effect of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic development and argues for a worker
revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of communism. Marxism posits that the struggle between
social classes—specifically between the bourgeoisie, or capitalists, and the proletariat, or
workers—defines economic relations in a capitalist economy and will inevitably lead to
revolutionary communism.

Understanding Marxism

Marxism is both a social and political theory, which encompasses Marxist class conflict theory
and Marxian economics. Marxism was first publicly formulated in the 1848 pamphlet, the
"Communist Manifesto," by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which lays out the theory of class
struggle and revolution. Marxian economics focuses on the criticisms of capitalism, which Karl
Marx wrote about in his 1859 book, "Das Kapital."

Class conflict and the demise of capitalism

Marx’s class theory portrays capitalism as one step in the historical progression of economic
systems that follow one another in a natural sequence. They are driven, he posited, by vast
impersonal forces of history that play out through the behavior and conflict among social classes.
According to Marx, every society is divided among a number of social classes, whose members
have more in common with one another than with members of other social classes.

Following are elements of Marx's theories on how class conflict would play out in a capitalist
system.

 Capitalist society is made up of two classes—the bourgeoisie, or business owners, who

control the means of production, and the proletariat, or workers, whose labor transforms
raw commodities into valuable economic goods.

 Ordinary laborers, who do not own the means of production, such as factories, buildings,
and materials, have little power in the capitalist economic system. Workers are also readily
replaceable in periods of high unemployment, further devaluing their perceived worth.

 To maximize profits, business owners have an incentive to get the most work out of their
laborers while paying them the lowest possible wages. This creates an unfair imbalance
between owners and the laborers whose work they exploit for their own gain.
  Since workers have little personal stake in the process of production, Marx believed they
would become alienated from it and resentful toward the business owner and their own
humanity.

 The bourgeoisie also employ social institutions, including government, media, academia,
organized religion, and banking and financial systems, as tools and weapons against the
proletariat with the goal of maintaining their position of power and privilege.

 Ultimately, the inherent inequalities and exploitative economic relations between these two
classes will lead to a revolution in which the working class rebels against the bourgeoisie,
seizes control of the means of production, and abolishes capitalism.

Thus Marx thought that the capitalist system inherently contained the seeds of its own destruction.
The alienation and exploitation of the proletariat that are fundamental to capitalist relations would
inevitably drive the working class to rebel against the bourgeoisie and seize control of the means
of production. This revolution would be led by enlightened leaders, known as the vanguard of the
proletariat, who understood the class structure of society and who would unite the working class
by raising awareness and class consciousness.

As a result of the revolution, Marx predicted that private ownership of the means of production
would be replaced by collective ownership, under socialism first and then communism. In the final
stage of human development, social classes and class struggle would no longer exist.

Communism vs. Socialism vs. Capitalism

Marx and Engel's ideas laid the groundwork for the theory and practice of communism.
Communism advocates for a classless system in which all property and wealth are communally,
rather than privately, owned. Although the former Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, among other
nations, have had nominally communist governments, there's never actually been a purely
communist state that has completely eliminated personal property, money, and class systems.

Socialism predates communism by several decades. Early adherents called for more egalitarian
distribution of wealth, solidarity among workers, better working conditions, and common
ownership of land and manufacturing equipment. Socialism is based on the idea of public
ownership of the means of production, but individuals may still own property. Rather than arising
out of a class revolution, socialist reform takes place within the existing social and political
structures, whether they be democratic, technocratic, oligarchic, or totalitarian.

Both communism and socialism oppose capitalism, an economic system characterized by private
ownership and a system of laws that protect the right to own or transfer private property. In a
capitalist economy, private individuals and enterprises own the means of production and the right
to profit from them. Communism and socialism aim to right the wrongs of capitalism's free-market
system. These include worker exploitation and inequities between rich and poor.

Criticism of Marxism

While Marx inspired multitudes of followers, many of his predictions have not been borne out.
Marx believed that increasing competition, rather than producing better goods for consumers,
would lead to bankruptcy among capitalists and the rise of monopolies, as fewer and fewer were
left to control production. Bankrupt former capitalists would join the proletariate, eventually
creating an army of the unemployed. In addition, the market economy, which by its nature is
unplanned, would experience huge supply-and-demand problems and cause severe depressions.3

Yet over the years, capitalism has not collapsed as a result of fierce competition. Although markets
have changed over time, they haven't led to a preponderance of monopolies. Wages have risen and
profits have not declined, although economic inequality has increased in many capitalist societies.
And while there have been recessions and depressions, they are not thought to be an inherent
feature of free markets. Indeed, a society without competition, money, and private property has
never materialized, and the history of the 20th century suggests it is likely an unworkable concept.

Q.3 Enlist the names of countries which were inspired by the socialist
revolutions?

Ans: Names of countries which were inspired by the socialist revolutions

1. People's Republic of China

2. Republic of Cuba
3. Lao People's Democratic Republic
4. Socialist Republic of Vietnam