Article II of The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen aims to preserve all men's natural rights through the eyes of the law. These natural rights are described as the right to freedom, property, safety, and the right to resist oppression. Article XVII of The Declaration focuses more on the "inviolable" right to ownership that a man has, and the government is expected to uphold these natural rights for all citizens. According to Karl Marx's and Friedrich Engels' social theory of conflict, Capitalist society should place a priority on the security of the right of property because property is a basic necessity in every person's lives. In Capitalist society, The Bourgeoisie which Marx describes as the wealthy upper class are in an ever-lasting …show more content…
Private property was such a large part of the upper classes life because they owned the means of production in their territory. This meant that the factories, mills, and many other industries-based businesses were owned by The Bourgeoisie, and The Proletariats then have to work as day laborers for The Bourgeoisie. In the 1859 Preface to a Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy, Marx begins with an immediate account of society's material need for all basic requirements; that could be shelter, food, etc. The general conclusion at which Marx arrives is, "In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness" (Pg. 211). Marx's conclusion is that many of the material needs that The Proletariats may have, are going to be satisfied by acts of labor that will take place in capitalist owned factories. This leads to a division of labor in which the capitalists are making an enormous profit through the use of the free trade market to sell the goods being made in …show more content…
Although there was a class division that led to many social conflicts between the classes, property is one thing that both classes could agree symbolized power. The division of labor was always one-sided with the proletariats conducting all of the menial labor while the bourgeoisie reaped the benefits of free trade in an open market. With capitalism expanding and property becoming even more valuable, according to Marx it is a necessity that the security of one's property is certain. Without that it would prove to be an unsuitable circumstance for the bourgeoisie who have entire businesses to lose versus the proletariat that may only have a home to his name. If either were to lose their property it would be horrendous, but there is no doubt that the bourgeoisie would lose more than the proletariat would. The class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat may be persistent, one fact both can agree on is security of property is