Marx believed that the socialist system established after the proletariat revolution would encourage social relations that would benefit everyone equally, abolish the exploitative capitalist, ending their exclusive ownership of the means of production, and introduce a system of production less vulnerable to cyclical crises. Once the proletariat developed a class consciousness, Marx believed, they would rise up and seize the means of production, overthrowing the capitalist mode of production, and bringing about a socialist society. Moreover, he believed that in the long-term this process would necessarily enrich and empower the capitalist class, while at the same time it would impoverish the poorer laboring class, which he referred to as the proletariat.Įventually, the proletariat would become class conscious-aware that their seemingly individual problems were created by an economic system that disadvantaged all those who did not own the means of production. Marx believed that economic growth would be punctuated by increasingly severe crises as capitalism went through cycles of growth, collapse, and more growth. Marx argued that capitalism was unstable and prone to periodic crises. Marx’s work focused largely on explaining the inherent instabilities present in capitalism and predicting its eventual fall and transition to socialism. Feudalism ended with class struggle between serfs and lords, and gave rise to a new stage, capitalism. Marx believed that the class conflict present in any stage would necessarily lead to class struggle and, eventually, to the end of that stage and the beginning of the next. ![]() Marx was less interested in explaining the stable organization of any given historical stage than in explaining how society changed from one stage to the next. In Marx’s dialectic, the class conflict in each stage necessarily leads to the development of the next stage. ” Because of his focus on the economic base over culture and ideas, Marx is often referred to as an economic determinist. ![]() He referred to ideas and culture as the “superstructure,” which grew up from the more fundamental economic “base. By contrast, he believed that the ideas and culture of a given stage were derived from the mode of production. He believed that the mode of production was the defining element of any period in history, and he called this economic structure the base of that society. Marx distinguished different historical eras in terms of their different modes of production. Together, the means of production and the relations of production compose a particular period’s mode of production. Throughout history, the relations of production have taken a variety of forms-slavery, feudalism, capitalism-in which employees enter into a contract with an employer to provide labor in exchange for a wage. Different stages have different relations of production, or different forms of social relationships that people must enter into as they acquire and use the means of production. Today, large corporations own many of the means of production. In feudal times, feudal lords owned the land and tools used for production. Today, the means of production include advanced technology, such as microchips and robots.Īt different stages in history, different groups have controlled the means of production. In feudal society, means of production might have included simple tools like a shovel and hoe. The means of production in any given society may change as technology advances. They also include technology, such as tools or machines, that people use to produce things. The means of production include things that are necessary to produce material goods, such as land and natural resources. ![]() Means of Production, Relations of ProductionĪccording to Marx, the way society is organized depends on the current means of production and who owns them.
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