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Topic: Marxism

Introduction
Marxism as a rich tradition of social thought derives its name from Karl Marx (1818-83).
Karl Marx along with Friedrich Engels has contributed significantly towards this theory.
Marxism is an economic and socio-political world view that contains within it a political
ideology for how to change and improve society by implementing socialism

Origin
➢ Marxism as a tradition first appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century as
a response to the oppressive conditions created by the capitalist system.
➢ The classical form of liberalism (Laissez faire and free market economy) had failed
to create conditions of human freedom.
➢ The first response to the conditions of the workers came from the early socialist
movements which opposed the free market society.
➢ Scholars like Saint Simon, Charles Fourier, and Robert Owen tried to bring
socialism by appealing to the conscience of the capitalist. They are regarded as
‘Utopian Socialists’
➢ Marx considered them utopian because they neither had any scientific understanding
of socialism nor any scientific program.
➢ He and Engels sought to replace the utopian socialism by scientific socialism
➢ Marx and Engels’ “Communist manifesto” gave a clarion call to the workers all over
the world to unite for the emancipation and freedom of mankind.

Meaning
➢ Marxism is based upon a materialist interpretation of history – social groups are
driven by creating and maintain wealth.
➢ It is a Revolutionary ideology to establish a classless, stateless society.
➢ Marxism comprises a rich tradition of social thought. It is classified into two streams:
• Classical or Traditional Marxism:
▪ Scholars: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Mao Zedong
(Permanent Revolution)

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▪ It regards the economic mode of production as the Base, and the legal
and political structures as the Superstructure.
▪ It states that the nature of superstructure is determined by the base at
each stage of historical development.
▪ It held that Private property divide the society into two classes:
Dominant and the dependent
▪ The class interests of these two classes are antithetical to each other.
▪ Therefore, antagonistic interests will lead to class struggle, which in
turn will lead to the capitalist class being overthrown by the
proletarian class.
▪ After the revolution, rule of the proletariat, “Dictatorship of the
Proletariat” (a transitional phase) will lead to a classless and a
Stateless communist society.
• Neo-Marxism
▪ Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Jurgen Habermas.
▪ It is based on the idea of broader consideration of social and
intellectual influences that perpetuate the oppression of working
class.
▪ This school is also known as the Frankfurt school or the critical
school.
▪ They analyzed the new forms of exploitation present in the post
capitalist society.

Main works
By Marx and Engels

➢ The Holy Family (1845)

➢ The Communist Manifesto (1848)
➢ The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)
➢ Das Capital (1867)
➢ The Civil War in France (1871)
➢ Critique of the Gotha Program (1891)
➢ The German Ideology (1932)

Others

➢ Antonio Gramsci : Prison Notebooks

➢ Ralph Miliband :
• The State in Capitalist Society

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• Marxism and Politics (Here he has identified four functions of capitalist
state: - Repressive, Ideological, Economic, International)

➢ Nicholas Poulantzas : Political Power and Social Classes State, Power and Society (he
supports the notion of relative autonomy of the state)

➢ N. Bobbio: Which Socialism? Marxism and Democracy

➢ Lenin:
• State and Revolution (here he states that, the state is a product and
manifestation of irreconcilability of class antagonisms)
• What is to be Done
• Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (According to him, Imperialism
is the final stage of Capitalism)

➢ Engels: The Origin of the Family, Private Property and State

Elements of Marxism

Dialectical Materialism
➢ The concept of Dialectical materialism is based on the Hegelian concept of
‘dialectical method’.
➢ The word ‘dialectical’ refers to the process whereby ideas are formed and clarified
in the course of the intellectual debate.
➢ For Hegel, human development/existence is dependent and determined by
ideas and human consciousness at each stage of human history.
➢ They develop in a zigzag manner following the formula of thesis (partial truth),
antithesis (opposite of thesis – a partial truth) and synthesis (nearer to truth).
➢ Hegel saw nation-state as the highest - as the highest stage of human
consciousness/social evolution and that state is the embodiment of truth, ‘The
march of God on Earth’
➢ Unlike Hegel, Marx believed that social institutions are shaped by the material
conditions of life. According to him, it is not the consciousness of men that
determines their being, but the social being of men determines their consciousness.
➢ He believed that Matter and not idea is the essence of the universe.
➢ Engels, in his Anti-Duhring, has given three laws of material dialectics (Dialectical
Materialism):

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• Qualitative and Quantitative Transformation – changes are qualitative till
a certain point, after which the form is changed (Capitalism to Socialism)
• Unity of opposition – everything within itself contains contradictory but
interdependent elements (Bourgeoisie and Proletariats)
• Negation of Negation - Thesis, antithesis and synthesis are connected in a
chain which develops by negating each other.
➢ The class struggle is a manifestation of this process.

Historical Materialism/Economic Interpretation of History

➢ Dialectical Materialism represent Philosophical basis of Marxism.
➢ Historical Materialism represents Scientific basis of Marxism.
➢ According to Marx, in any given period, economic relations of society play an
important role in shaping their social , political and intellectual relations

➢ He talks about the Base and Superstructure Mode:

• Base (Foundation) – includes mode of production
• Superstructure (The external build up) – includes the legal and political
structure, morals, social practices, literature, etc.

➢ The Mode of Production has two components:

• Forces of production
• Relations of production

➢ Forces of Production has two components:

• Means of Production (tools and equipments)
• Labour Power (human knowledge and skills)

➢ Relations of production are determined by patterns of ownership of means of

ownership – Haves and Have-nots.
➢ According to Marx, changes in the means of production bring out changes in nature
of contending classes, but it does not bring about an end of the class conflict.
➢ When material productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations
of production, the new social class which owns the new means of production
overthrows the old dominant class in a Revolution.
➢ As a result, an old social formation is replaced by a new social formation.
However the class conflict continues.
➢ This has been the case till the rise of capitalism, which according to Marx will now be
overthrown by a Socialist Revolution, leading to a classless society.

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Historical Materialism
Dialectical Materialsim

Historical Materialism
Matter is Primary is economical
Study of Contradiction
Mind is Secondary Interpretation of
History

Industrial
Stone Age Hunting Castle Agriculture
revolution

Class Struggle

Capital Labour

Doctrine of Class Struggle

➢ The opening statement of Communist Manifesto reads, “The history of all hitherto
society is the history of class struggle”
➢ The Marxist theory of classes and class struggle makes a scientific analysis of each
historical stage of social development.

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➢ Marxism regards class struggle as a historical phenomenon which took place at a
given stage of historical development.
➢ At every stage there are broadly two classes:
• The Exploiters (Owners of Production)
• The Exploited
➢ According to the relentless law of history, a particular class owns and controls the
means of production, and by virtue of this exploits the rest of the people.
➢ Marx felt that there was an inevitable evolution of class struggle that would end
with Communism. The progression of class struggle is described below:

Stages of History and Class Conflict at each Stage

Stage Oppressing Class Oppressed Class

Primitive Communism No Classes = No Conflict

Slavery Slave Owners Slaves

Feudalism Landowners Serfs

Capitalism Bourgeoisie Proletariat

Socialism State managers Workers

Communism No Classes = No Conflict

Theory of Surplus Value

➢ The theory of Surplus value is one of the significant contributions of Karl Marx to the
political theory.
➢ Marx adopted Ricardo’s Iron Law of Wages. Ricardo suggested that the capitalists,
driven by the need to make profits and capital, will pay their workers only subsistence
wages, which are enough to feed themselves and their families, because that much is
necessary to bring them back to work the next day.
➢ Hence, workers are not only slaves – “wage slave”, but their masters pay them only
meager wages, regardless of how much they may produce.
➢ Thus, capitalists, force the workers to produce an excess, or surplus value, and keep
that sum for themselves as profits. He calls unpaid labour as surplus value.
➢ Anything the workers produce above the subsistence level is surplus value.
➢ Surplus value leads to capital accumulation
➢ The capitalists try to increase their profits by in three ways:
• By increasing the working hours
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• By diminishing the number of hours required to produce labour’s subsistence
• Increasing the productivity of labour.
➢ According to Marx, “capital is dead labour, which, vampire like, lives only by
sucking living labour and lives the more, the more labour it sucks”

➢ Marx has given the concept of Alienation, which is a sense of powerlessness,

isolation and meaninglessness experienced by human beings when they are
confronted with social institutions and conditions that they cannot control and
consider oppressive.
➢ The workers in the capitalist society face alienation from:
• The object that he produces
• The process of production
• Himself
• Community of his fellowmen

Theory of Revolution
➢ Marx predicted the demise of capitalism. He argued, capitalism, would force the
capitalists to buy more machinery.
➢ However, only human labour can produce a surplus value; thus capitalists profits
would decline, leading unemployment.
➢ On one hand the size of the proletarian will increase and on the other the wealth in
the society would be controlled by few.
➢ The misery of the proletariat would eventually increase to a point, that could no
longer be endured and a Revolution would erupt, bring the system to knees.
➢ Economic change forces social change, which, in turn, drives political change.
➢ The revolutionaries, whom Marx called the ‘Vanguard of the Proletariat’, should
instill in the workers an understanding of the true nature of the capitalist society.
➢ The revolutionaries were to act as an educative force than as an activist.
➢ The revolution would destroy capitalism. Its eventual replacement would be
communism which will create a classless society. This will be the final and
permanent state of society.

Neo-Marxism
➢ Sometimes termed as Modern Marxism.
➢ It attempts to revise or recast the classical ideas of Marx will remaining faithful to
the certain aspects and methodology of Marx.
➢ Influences:
• Karl Marx
• Gramsci (importance of Superstructure and Consciousness)

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• Hegel (Importance of Ideas/Consciousness)
• Sigmund Freud (The Psychoanalytic theory) – Concept of sub-conscious mind
➢ Two central themes can be identified in the Neo-Marxists:
• They tried to provide an alternative to the mechanistic and deterministic ideas
of orthodox Marxism. They refused to accept the primacy of economics or a
privileged role to the proletariat class
• They were concerned to explain the failure of Marx’s future predictions with
regards to the ideology and state power.
➢ They have analyzed the new forms of exploitation. According to them, capitalism
has adopted a humane face, and therefore it is more difficult to understand
exploitation.
➢ Frankfurt School/Critical School believes that the most important objective of Karl
Marx was not revolution, but emancipation of masses.
➢ The critical school theorists are known as critical because they are critical of
science/positivism.
➢ According to them, science has promoted only ‘instrumental reality’
➢ There is no freedom even in the post-capitalist society. The nature of capitalism has
changed and the method of exploitation has also changed.
➢ According to them, the welfare state has satisfied the lower order needs of the
working class. And they have therefore lost their revolutionary potential. They find
happiness in the consumer items.
➢ The present society is a consumerist society and capitalism has survived by
promoting a consumerist culture.
➢ Herbert Marcuse, in his book, ‘One Dimensional man’ states that capitalism has
converted classes into masses.
➢ Neo-Marxists analyze the role of science, ICT in creating a mass culture for mass
society.
➢ They suggest the analysis of culture in the analysis of capitalism. According to
them, culture is no more the element of superstructure. It is the element of basic
structure and is produced, sold and purchased.
➢ Theodor Adorno has analyzed the role of capitalism on music. It has destroyed
original music. Music has been reduced to siesmographically controlled chromatic
shocks. The purpose is to make the person insensitive and mindless.

Quotes

➢ “Marxism is a revolutionary worldview that must always struggle for new revelation”
- Rosa Luxemburg
➢ “State is an executive committee for managing the common affairs of the whole
bourgeoisie”
- Karl Marx
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➢ “Marxism is a world view”
- G.V. Plekhanov
➢ “Let the ruling class tremble at the communist revolution. The proletariats have
nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working classes of all
countries: Unite”
- Karl Marx
➢ “Only the guns are turned to the opposite direction”.
- Lenin

Conclusion
Though the failure of Marxism and Communism is a serious handicap for the Marxists, it is
the survival of capitalism in its robust form which makes Marxism more pronouncing.
Marxism has not remained static or a finished system, it continually modified
according to the changing historical circumstances.

Previous Year Questions

1. Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled
as Reason (R). Select the correct answer from the codes given below:

Assertion (A): Marx was a revolutionary.

Reason (R): Marx was not concerned about the processes of history.

Codes:

(A) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

(B) Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

(C) (A) is true, but (R) is false.

(D) (A) is false, but (R) is true.

Answer: (C)

2. Which one among the following is NOT related to Neo-Marxism?

A. Jurgen Habermas
B. Ericd Fromm
C. Herbert Marcuse
D. Rosa Luxemburg

Answer: D

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