Critically Assess Marx’s Theory of Class and Stratification

Marx distinguish surmise derived from his belief that track divisions argon non found in all forms of party kindes are a creation of history. For Marx, crystalizees are defined and structured by firstly, who owns or has billet and style of production and who does the piece of work in the production surgical procedure, secondly the social dealinghips included in work and savvy, and thirdly who suffers and who rules the surplus clement social labour can produce. All of these aspects of Marx club theory will be further explored in this essay.Marx believed that break up divisions are non found in all societies, trendes are a creation of history. The earliest and smallest societies (tribal and primitive) were classless. It is universally true that all hu gay beings depend on the quest of meeting their canonic ask food, water, shelter and clothing. In these primitive societies, the working day was taken up with required labour in order to meet societys basic inelucta bly and forces of production were distributed equally amongst the community.But when basic needs are met, this leads to mans creation of new needs, as humans are constantly dissatisfied animals. Marx defines human beings as producers (Callinicos, A, p. 98, 1996). Humans seek to transform nature to en equal them to meet their needs and do this through two different mode of production. The first forces of production which depends on what Marx calls the labour process. Labour is first of all a process among man and nature, a process by which man, though his own actions, mediates, regulates and halts the metabolism between himself and nature (C I 283).The relations of production is the social aspect, which involves the property rights of the productive forces, it is what distinguishes the modes of production for one another. Improvements in the labour force are determined by if man is able to produce the same amount of things but with less human labour. By been able to produce more effectively, thusly meant man gains more control over nature.Thus the developments of the labour process are a reflection of human technology (Callinicos, A, p. 8, 1996) and Marx believed that the developments of science and technology in society provide a basis on which future societies can build upon. Although Marx never said in so m any(prenominal) an(prenominal) words what he meant by class, his theory lies on the statement that the history of all hitherto quick society is the history of class struggles. That once beyond primitive socities no labour can inhabit without convey of production, which is who controls the direct producers. The central classes in capitalism are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Class divisions arise in society when the direct producers are separated from the means of production.The means of production, the bourgeoisie, become the monopoly of a minority and mapping exertionation and domination in relation to the producers, the proletariat. Ma rx looks at the working day in a class society and identies how capital exploits labour wage. During the first half of the day the worker produces goods in which he is nonrecreational to but during the second part of the day the worker performs surplus labour. Surplus labour is generated by how practically labour time is left over after the employer has made back the equivalent of the cost of the return of the labourer.The profit of this surplus labour is too small though to improve every(prenominal)ones standard of living, so it is taken by the minority who control the means of production. Marx decscribes four main guinea pigs of class societies Asiatic, ancient, feudal, and modern bourgeois, the specialisation between for example a society based on slave labour and a society based on wage labour is the form in which this surplus labour is in for each one case exploited from the immediate producer, the worker (C I 325). The practice of exploitation depends on the distributi on of the means of production.In the case of slavery , it seems all the slaves labour is surplus labour , he is not permitted to any of his product. But the slave has to be kept alive in order to gain surplus force-out, consequently a proportion of the slaves wages is set aside to provide him his basic needs. In feudalism society, the tyke may have owned his animals and tools, but did not own the land he works on, at that placefore must divide his labour time between the work that needed to be done in order to provide for himself and his family and surplus labour for his lord.In both these mode of production, slavery and feudalism, exploitation is understandably visible and physical consequences are evident without question. However in capitalism exploitation is concealed. The worker is lawfully free, as he has volunteered to partake in the labour process. Marx wrote that workers are free in a parallel sense , free from the old relations of clientship, bondage and servitude, and secondly free of all belongings and possessions, and of every objective, material form of being, free of all property (G 507).By not selling his labour power to the capitalist, the workers solo other option is starvation. The means of production use economic pressures as a means of control over workers, not physical actions. Thus once the employer has employed the workers, he makes them work longitudinal hours than necessary, creating surplus labour. In the case of feudalism, after centuries new methods of producing began to develop. But releasing these new methods worked against the ruling classin the framework of the prior form of exploitation and the legal and political superstructure that had arisen out of it.This clash between the new opportunities and the structure of the previous order, was in severe crisis. Without new developments, the existing means of producing was not able to hold water any more development in the population, the Black Death followed, causing horr ific events such(prenominal) as famines and disease and violence. The previous ways of shaping society and furthering the mode of production were brought to a halt. Marx foresaw that on that point could be mutation in society abolishing classes altogether.Then begins an epoch of social revolution, , Marx wrote. Yet the ruling class were still dominating the workers, even though the mode of production had self-destructed. The ruling class dominates not only the way production is carried on, but all the other organizations and relations in society, whose structure aids the exploiters, control their power. As Marx explained, all class societies create a legal, political and ideological superstructure which functions to control the existing relations of production and guard the rulers from the ruled.But an important tool for the ruling class to persuade the working class is ideology schemes of ideas that depict the recognized order as natural and positive to everyone, whatever its und eniable faults. Marx believed that the workers did not realise they were been exploited, had a false consciousness, mistaken sense that they could count on their employer. He believed that ideologies help sustain the ruling class, by giving misleading views to people about the world in order to exploit others about their position in society.It caused people to form mistaken views about the nature of society in order to keep the existing mode of production in action. Because the dominant or ruling class rules the social relations of production, the central ideology in capitalist society is that of the ruling class. Marx theory of class consciousness was an idea how to make members of a class aware that they have a common website and interests and, moreover, are able to organize a collective defence of those interests (Elster, J, p128, Intro to Karl Marx).Marx saw that there were some(prenominal) logics why the proletariat would develop into a class that is conscious of its own stat us, power, obligations, and prospects. The objective condition of a class subsists because of its position in the productive process. Possession or non-possession of the means of production, place in the labour process, and the control over surplus regulate this. However a class such as the bourgeoisie or proletariat, may be unaware of this position, or in any case the effects of this position.Marx believed there would be a revolution, the workers would come together and rise up and fight to abolish the class system. once everything had calmed down after the revolution, the proletariat would then own the means of production. He believed that no dominating class would exist and everything would be owned equally amongst society. He thought that if the working class were to take control of the means of production, they would inspire social relations that would help everyone proportionately, and an organization of production less at fortune to repeated crises.Overall, Marx believed th at nonviolent compromise of this issue was unrealistic, and prearranged and violent revolution would be necessary, because the dominating class would not surrender control without a fight. He speculated that in order to secure the socialist system, a tyranny of the proletariat must be generated on a provisional foundation. Marxs forethought of a revolution did not come true. As societies developed and expanded, the working classes grew to be more educated, obtaining detailed job skills and accomplishing the type of financial welfare that Marx never thought achievable.