In Defense of Marx: Views on the State of Modern Philippine Society

Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx are three men whose ideologies

paved the way for classical sociological theory. They all lived during the Industrial

Revolution, a time when drastic changes were occurring within Europe. With the

industrialization of commerce came the promise of a society that would stand at the

forefront of modernization. In response to this, Durkheim, Weber, and Marx created their

own ideas for what modern society consisted of, and these ideas remain relevant even in

the present (Connell, 1997).

Émile Durkheim argued that a society must have solidarity among its people. As

modernization grew, people specialized in different fields of work, leading to the

emergence of various skill sets and backgrounds within the same society. Thus, organic

solidarity, which acknowledges this rising diversity, but still retained the connections

each person has to each other, emerged. Durkheim believed that this was the basis of

modern society, as it unifies the people in it, yet differentiates it from the societies of the

pre-modernization days.

Meanwhile, for Max Weber, modern society is instead built on charismatic

authority. He believed that before modernity, society was upheld through “respect for

tradition, piety towards elders and ancestors, and bonds of personal loyalty,” (p. 75).

Meanwhile, charismatic authority gains power not from tradition, but from a deeper

mission which the bearer of authority represents. People submit to charismatic authority

because they resonate with the values the authority-bearer promotes, and from this,

modern society emerged.

Lastly, Karl Marx argued that modernity arose from the bourgeoisies’ need to

preserve wealth. They “agglomerated population, centralized means of production, and

concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was political

centralisation,” (p. 16). The divide between social classes is maintained through the

bourgeoisie constantly demanding the proletariat to produce goods, entrapping them in

work, and alienating them from others. This alienation thus defines modern society.
 These ideologies have different levels of idealism. Durkheim’s ideology views

modernity positively, and Weber maintains a neutral stance. Marx however, sees it as one

that has unfortunate consequences for the proletariat, and this negative perspective is also

the one that is most accurate to current-day society, as it captures today’s inequalities.

Durkheim’s ideology lacks recognition of the presence of conflict in modern

society. His perspective shows how society must always be bound by unity between

people, but does not consider situations in which relationships can become conflicted,

only assuming that they lead towards positive outcomes, which, when given the amount

of inequality we have in our society, cannot be entirely true. The Philippines has the

highest income gap in ASEAN, with 57% of the population being considered poor

(Masigan, 2023).

Weber, on the other hand, argues that as society modernizes, it strays away from

tradition and moves towards charismatic authority. However, in the Philippines, tradition

and charismatic authority arguably go hand-in-hand. For example, although the rise of

populism could be seen as spearheaded by charismatic authority to replace the old ways

of Philippine governance, it has roots in ages-old Filipino values of masculine strength

and respect for hierarchy (Pernia, 2019). Thus, Weber’s ideas of charismatic authority do

not completely apply to the Philippine context.

Marx’s ideas both account for inequality, and manifest in modern Philippine

society. We see how political structures preserve the elites’ wealth: from 1988 to 2019,

the number of political dynasties in the government have risen (Mendoza et al., 2019).

Since the American colonial period, these political dynasties have come from upper-

middle class to upper class backgrounds, and often work with each other when

embezzling government funds (Tadem et al., 2016). Furthermore, contractual

employment, a form of employment popular in the Philippines, exposes workers to long

work hours, substandard pay, and little to no labor benefits (Fisher, 2023), mirroring

Marx’s point on how the proletariat are exploited and alienated.

 In conclusion, although Marx, Weber, and Durkheim had valid opinions on what

defines modernity, it is Marx's ideas that most accurately describe today’s society. His

emphasis on the exploitation and alienation of the proletariat reflects on current issues of

class divide and income inequality, issues that Weber and Durkheim’s ideas both fail to

account for. Marx’s ideas continue to be a potent lens through which to examine and

comprehend the intricacies of modern society, as they illuminate the structures of power

that serve as its basis, and the consequences these structures create.

References

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