12/30/2023 0 Comments Means of productionThis means that the proletariat is exploited, with the surplus time (above that required for creating subsistence) worked by the worker creating surplus products. If the capitalist-employer is to make profits and accumulate capital, wages must be kept low. This exploitative work relationship recreates or reproduces itself continually. This means working for a capitalist-employer in an exploitative social relationship. Since these workers have no property, in order to survive and obtain an income for themselves and their families, they must find employment work for an employer. The proletariat are owners of labour power (the ability to work), and mere owners of labour power, with no other resources than the ability to work with their hands, bodies, and minds. By employing workers, industrial capital created the surplus value that could take on the various forms such as profit, interest and rent.ī. In Britain, this class became dominant politically and ideologically by the mid-nineteenth century. It was the industrial capitalists who employed labour to create capital that became the leading sector of the bourgeoisie, whose economic activities ultimately changed society. For a segment of this class, wealth came by employing labour (industrial capital), for others it came through trade (merchant capital), banking and finance (finance capital), or using land in a capitalist manner (landed capital). That is, they helped undermine the old hierarchical and feudal order and create historical progress. In the struggle against the feudal authorities (church and secular political authorities) this class formed and took on a progressive role. In order for each of these to expand their operations, they needed greater freedom to market products and expand economic activities. Historically, the bourgeoisie began cities of medieval Europe, with the development of traders, merchants, craftspersons, industrialists, manufacturers and others whose economic survival and ability to increase wealth came from trade, commerce, or industry. What is necessary is the active role of using this wealth to make it self-expansive through employment and exploitation of labour. managers in the state sector or landlords). Being wealthy is, in itself, not sufficient to make one a capitalist (e.g. It is the ownership of capital and its use to exploit labour and expand capital are key here. The bourgeoisie or capitalists are the owners of capital, purchasing and exploiting labour power, using the surplus value from employment of this labour power to accumulate or expand their capital. However, other classes such as landlords, petty bourgeoisie, peasants, and lumpenproletariat also exist, but are not primary in terms of the dynamics of capitalism.Ī. The main classes in capitalism are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Note that Hadden does not discuss class in any detail, although the class structure of capitalism is implicit in the labour theory of value and can be derived from this theory. Many of his writings concern the class structures of capitalism, the relationship among classes the dynamics of class struggle, political power and classes, and the development of a classless society, and from these a Marxian approach to class can be developed. Marx did not complete the manuscript that would have presented his overall view of social class. While earlier societies contained various strata or groupings which might be considered classes, these may have been strata or elites that were not based solely on economic factors – e.g. These economic factors more fully govern social relationships in capitalism than they did in earlier societies. For Marx, classes are defined and structured by the relations concerning (i) work and labour and (ii) ownership or possession of property and the means of production. 75).Īnalysis of class divisions and struggles is especially important in developing an understanding of the nature of capitalism. The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. In the Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels comment that Marx's Theory of Social Class and Class Structureįor Marx, the analysis of social class, class structures and changes in those structures are key to understanding capitalism and other social systems or modes of production.
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