Marxism Theories

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What type of sociologists are Marxists?
Macro, conflict
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What did Marx name for the ideas about history and the emergence of class divisions in society?
Historical Materialism (Dialectical)
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What is Materialism?
the view that humans are beings with Material needs such as food and shelter
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What must humans to meet these Material needs?
work through the means of production (land, labour, capital)
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What do humans have to enter to ensure survival?
social relations of production
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how was this different to early stages of human history?
land was just a form of unaided
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why was it possible for the Bourgeriosie not to contribute to labour?
because humans produced more than they need si could be supported b the others
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What did this eventually lead to?
This eventually led to the division of the 2 classes (B+P)
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However, why could it be argued Marx is to deterministic?
humans have free will and can bring about change through their own conscious actions
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What does the base-superstructure model?
neglects the rile of new ideas which can lead to social change
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How is the Capitalist society different to ancient society or feudal system?
Capitalism is based off the exploitation of free wage laborers whereas feudal society is based on the exploitation of serfs legally tied to the land, Ancients society is based off slaves legally tied to owners like Ancient Rome
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Why is capitalism different than other societies?
the capitalist mode of production would ensure a conflicting relationship between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. There are 3 distinctive features that make capitalist societies different from previous class societies
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1st . Why are the proletariat legally free and separate from the means of production?
they must sell their labor to the Bourgeoisie in order to survive - not equal exchange as they are not paid its true worth so R/C makes a profit
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2nd . Why does competition lead to further impoverishment of the proletriat?
it allows the bourgeoisie to pay the lowest wages possible as leading transnational companies can do
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3RD. why does the capitalist means of production deskill workers meaning they are paid less?
because the production of goods are concentrated into larger units and technology
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What is the quote about the divide of the R/C and W/C?
'face each other as two warring camps'
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However, why might Marx's theory of capitalism be outdated?
western societies M/C have grown while industrial W/C have declined
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What is the Marx quite about that the R/C and W/C tension would break under a capitalist mode of production?
'sows the seeds of its own destruction'
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Why is this?
they will get class consciousness and rise above - because of low wages and
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Why will 'class in itself' to 'class for itself'?
workers first become conscious of sharing common grievances against capitalism to developing awareness forming a class to the bourgeoise
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What would the W/C have to do to own the means of production and gain class consciousness?
see through the ideology
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What is alienation?
lack of creativity, isolated, no control
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Why does Marx belive Aleination is oppressive?
because it is human nature to create things in order to meet our needs and leads a worker to be reduced to an unskilled labourer by repaeating a meaningless task
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What dloes Marx define the state as?
Armed bodies of men
(army, police, prisons and courts)
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That does the state protect ?
the interest of the W/C
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What was Marxists vision for a proletariat revolution?
abolish the state and the establish a communist state, abolish private ownership and replace it with social ownership
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However, what did he write little about?
wrote very little about how it would come about
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However, how does Weber criticise Marx?
that he gives a dimensional view of inequality, argues that status and power differences can also be importance sources of inequality independent from class
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Why is Marx superstructure model os seen as too simplistic?
neglects the role of idea eg. Calvinists
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Neo-Marxism
.....
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What type of approch does Gramsci take?
humanistic or critical Marxism
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Why is Gramsci humanistic ?
human are creative beings, able to make history through their own conscious actions
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What are the 2 types of hegemonic control?
Coercion - forces like police and
consent- (hegemony) consent given by masses to type of society imposed on them by R/C
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However, what are the 4 ruling class hegemony?
The R/C are a minority, the proletariat has duel-consciousness, Gramsci rejects economic determinism as an explanation of the change, the ruling class hegemony may be undermined by an economic crisis
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However, what does Gramsic ignore about why workers may not want to overthrow capitialism?
don't want to face imprisonment or
unemployment
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What 2 things do W/C have to produce to overthrow R/C?
counter-hegemonic bloc and own organic intellectuals
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Althusser
Structuralist Marxists
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Criticism Althusser gives of the superstructure? (3)
The economic level - all those activities which involve producing something to satisfy a need
The political level - comprising all forms of organization
The ideological level - involves the way people see themselves and their world
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According to Althusser, what are the 2 state apparatuses?
The ideological state apparatus and the repressive state apparatus
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What is the ideological state apparatus?
(media, education, family, unions) manipulate the proletariat into accepting capitalism as legitmate
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What is the repressive state apparatus?
(army, police and prisons) 'armed bodies of men' who coerce the proletariat into complying with the wishes or the bourgeoisie
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However, what do internationalists point out?
he still leaves out human action and consciousness
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What are Althussars two criticisms of humanism
Humans are mere puppets and thede unseen structures are the hidden puppet master, determining and these unseen thoughts and actions, socialism will not come about because of a change in consciousness - 3 structures are separate
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How does Gouldner criticise Althusser?
active struggles of the W/C that change society, not structural factors
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What is the dialect of class conflict?
economic divisions between social class - main sourceof conflict between humans
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How do functionalists criticise Marxists?
say their explanations of society is too focused on conflict and that the social institutions real role is to promote social harmony
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Why do postmodernists argue the Marxist theory is outdated?
issues such as social class are not fundamental to an individual identity, all beliefs are relative so it would be difficult for a dominate groups to enforce their ideology to the ideology
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Card 2

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What did Marx name for the ideas about history and the emergence of class divisions in society?

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Historical Materialism (Dialectical)

Card 3

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What is Materialism?

Back

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Card 4

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What must humans to meet these Material needs?

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Card 5

Front

What do humans have to enter to ensure survival?

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