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Marxist Perspective In Sociology

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What is a Marxist sociologist and how is a Marxist perspective different than other perspectives in sociology?

Marxist sociology has been developed by a range of ideas that would inspire major social movements, initiate a global revolutionary social change and provide the foundation for many socialist or communist governments. This body of thought was initiated by Karl Marx and his long-time associate Fredrick Engels. In recent times, Marxism’s political influence has subsided, with most of the formerly communist regimes enduring momentous change. Marxist concepts have played a particularly significant role in the development of sociological discipline and have influenced many fields of thought. Classical sociological theorists such as Émile …show more content…

He states that at a particular stage of social development, “the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production.... From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.” (Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Individual and Society (Moscow, USSR: Progress Publishers, 1984), …show more content…

Whereas Marx tends to focus on economic influences. Weber generalises the political to the economic. He stressed that economics, individually, couldn’t explain the class system. (Max Weber, An intellectual portrait page 86) In contrast, Marx argues that during capitalism the Bourgeoisie exploited the Proletariats for their ‘surplus value, this is the extra revenue made after paying the Proletariats for their labour. Marx stated that the ruling class control all the power and use it to undermine and exploit the working class. He accepts the importance of the state but argues that the state promotes ruling classes’ interests in order to keep the wealthy pleased.
Marx and Weber’s theories begin to differ on the topic of stratification also. Weber introduced the concept of ‘status groups’ which conflict with classes due to the fact that they’re based around communities. The Weberian outlook is that all societies can be divided into said ‘status groups’. Weber argues that it is due to Marx’s class centred view that his prediction on future societies have an unsuccessful

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Karl Marx developed his theories about socialism in the 1800’s. Although Marx’ had written so much about capitalism so long ago he foresaw the increasing gap between the rich and poor. Even in the United States the worlds richest country, the capitalist system continually exploits the working class which causes the gap to become greater and greater which causes an increase in social inequality. Marx is seen as one of the three founders of the social sciences along with Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. His contributions to sociology include the framework of dialectical materialism and separation between social classes of people or a conflict perspective.

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According to Marx society was divided into two classes that were in eternal conflict in the battle for resources, or as Marx coined; “the means of production”. The first class were the bourgeoisie, which Marx described as the sole owners of the means of production as well as the media. The bourgeoisie used their power and influence to exploit the second class, which Marx called the proletariat which consisted of all the workers of the world. Marx rejected the idea that the wealthy pulled themselves from their own bootstraps, which he called “false consciousness” and in return coined the term “class consciousness”, which referred to a persons awareness of their own social status, especially in terms of class conflict. Overall, Marx concluded that social order is created maintained by domination and power.

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When using a Marxist lens the viewer must focus on social classes and how power is distributed throughout these classes, including who holds the power and who is inferior to that power in the society. One question that might come about when viewing the

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Social class is in his definition mainly based on economical assets, where strata goes beyond economic wealth: it can be possession the religious insight, intellectuality or political engagement (Weber 1958). Political dedication is one of his main themes; Weber distinguishes between people living for politics or off politics. A person who is passionate about politics, lives for politics as a vocation, in Weber’s (1958, 5) terms: ‘Either he enjoys the naked possession of the power he exerts, or he nourishes his inner balance and self-feeling by the consciousness that his life has meaning in the service of a 'cause '’. The opposite of living for politics is living off politics. By this, Weber means a person, a person who seeks economical wealth of political engagement.

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Sociologists analyze social phenomena at different levels using different perspectives. Sociologists study everything—from the micro level of analysis of small social patterns to the macro level analysis of large social patterns. Sociological perspective includes three (3) approaches: The Symbolic Interactionism which involves the micro level of analysis using symbols and face to face interactions; the Functionalism perspective which involves the macro level of analysis and gives emphasis on the relationship between parts of society and how the aspects of the society becomes functional; and the Conflict Theory using the macro level of analysis which focuses on the competition for scarce resources and how elites control the poor and weak (“Three Major Perspectives in Sociology,” 2015). With the given differences, Weber can be closely related to being a ‘Conflict Structuralist’. In Weber’s perspective that his sociological analysis focused as to how people’s relationship influence people’s behavior.

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“In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations” (Manifesto, 1848). In the Communist manifesto, Marx discusses the class type of his time, bourgeois and proletariat. The bourgeois were the higher class who exploited the proletariats. They constantly strived to expand their power and wealth in society.

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Although they actually share some similarities, Weber’s analysis of class, change, capitalism and history differ radically from the views by Marx. Marx believed in capitalism and class conflict whereas Weber believed in rationalisation and bureaucracy. Both Marx and Weber agreed that there was many problems within modern society. Marx had an optimistic view about the future of society and he was confident that his theory would improve the lives of those in society. Weber however took more of a pessimistic view arguing that society is characterised by the process of rationalisation.

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Marx believed that the current capitalist society is separated into two classes, the Proletariat society, and Bourgeois society. The Proletarians, as perceived by Marx, are part of the working class that only possess one significant material value, that is the ability to work, or labour power. The Bourgeoise, on the other hand, is the societal class that owns the means of production and hence rule over the Proletarians. As I quote from Marx’s book, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx and Engels, 1988, p. 473)

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Bourgeoisie, which gains the power, defines superstructure “including all social and legal institution, all political and educational systems, all religions and all art” (Bressler, 162), and articulate the ideology which is based on profits of bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie ideology leads to alienation of individuals, especially proletariats. This bourgeoisie ideology creates the clash between the two classes. Marx supported the working class and their victory over dominant class. Marxism believes in providing equal opportunity to the working class as that are available to the

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In his work, Marx focused on two antagonistic classes of capitalists and workers to demonstrate uneven distribution of material resources and exploitation power, also rooted in economic relations, within society. Hence, in the Marxian framework, social position could be treated as a unidimensional construct. Weber extended Marx’s analytical scheme by introducing additional components of social position, “status” and “party”. Status, or prestige,

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Marx was one of the most intelligible and perspective critics. However, the study of political sociology refers to the interrelationship between both politics and society and somehow this relationship cannot be separated between both of them or it is hard to separate between both politics and society, because they are interrelated. As a result, of this interconnection between both politics and society, there is a social relationship between both of them which lead to reform in the society and make the community a better place

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Karl Marx and Max Weber both agreed that capitalism generates alienation in modern societies, but the cause for it were both different. For Marx it is due to economic inequality in where the capitalist thinks that the workers worth nothing more than a source of labour, that can be employed and dismissed at will. This causes the workers to be dehumanised by their jobs (in the past, routine factory work and in the present-day, managing demands on a computer), which leads to the workers finding slight satisfaction and feeling incapable of improving their situation. It was noted by Marx four methods on how capitalism alienates workers. The first, is alienation from the function of working.

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1754 Words | 8 Pages

Classical sociological theories are theories with ambition and great scope that either created in the early 1800s and 1900s in Europe. There were many sociological theorists such as Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Vilfredo Pareto, Auguste Comte, Karl Marx was important in its Time and have played a significant role in the subsequent growth and development of sociology. According to the origins of British Sociology, the market economy is a source of order, positive force, integration and harmony in society. According to Jackson (2014), there was a small elite inevitably dominates society on the grounds of enlightened self-interest. On the other hand, the anomie, considered out of any specific social context, refers to the problems

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A Marxist sociologist is a materialist and a sociologist that follows the ideas of Marx. Marx’s main concern was that of capitalism and class conflict. In the words of Giddens and Sutton (2013), capitalism is ‘a system of production that contrasts radically with all previous economic systems.’ It was Marx’s belief that all societies, including capitalist societies, are divided into classes, with one being the dominant class. In the case of capitalism, there are two main classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

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Conflict theory states that tensions and conflicts arise when resources, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in society and that these conflicts become the engine for social change. In this context, Marx’s conflict approach was developed in 19th century by Karl Marx (1818-83) .Marx argued wealth and power were unequally distributed in society and sought to explain how one minority group (1% ruling-class) in society maintained its dominance over the majority (working-class). Weber formulated a response to Marx’s theory. Weber saw that conflict didn’t overwhelmingly involve the economy, but that the state and economy together set up conditions for conflict. In this essay I will discuss the views of Conflict Theorists on

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