Understanding Marxist Theory: From Feudalism to Communism
Feudalism
Feudal Lord: Owner of the land.
Capitalism
Capitalism: Private ownership of the means of production and labor force. This is the society that Marx and Engels critiqued in their works, analyzing it and reaching the following conclusions:
- This mode of production involves the exploitation of one person by another.
- This situation must be resolved through revolution, establishing a socialist mode of production.
Socialism
Socialism: Collective ownership of the means of production. There is no private ownership of the means of production; the social collective owns the property. It supports private ownership of consumer goods.
Key Concepts in Marxist Theory
Given the above concepts, we can establish the following:
1. The Relationship Between Economic Infrastructure and Superstructure
According to Marxist theory, the economic infrastructure is where we should look to explain social phenomena belonging to the superstructure. The economic structure determines the superstructure, including beliefs, institutions, legal relationships, and so on. Some Marxists believe that the economic structure fully determines the superstructure (economic determinism) and try to deduce all economic phenomena that occur at the legal, political, and ideological levels from the economic base.
However, for Marx and Engels, the elements of the superstructure have relative autonomy, and there is an interaction between the infrastructure and superstructure, although the infrastructure has a strong determining influence. Thus, Engels pointed out that the development of philosophy cannot be explained simply by economics.
2. The Exploitation of Workers in Capitalism
The situation of workers in the capitalist mode of production is one of economic exploitation, specifically through the maximization of surplus value (unpaid labor) and total alienation, a situation discussed in the section on alienation and its forms. Let’s examine the first aspect: the maximization of surplus value.
Profit comes from productive work. If the value produced by a worker’s labor were returned to them in its entirety, there would be no profit. For profit to occur, there must be surplus value, i.e., unpaid labor. To increase profits, the employer tends to stretch the surplus value by squeezing wages and lengthening the working day. Labor is bought and sold under the laws of market supply and demand.
It is in the employer’s interest for the supply of labor to be larger than the demand, meaning that there is a margin of unemployment, so that labor becomes more affordable (lower wages) and workers are forced to accept the conditions offered to them. As partial unemployment is necessary for the proper functioning of the capitalist system, it necessarily produces misery.
3. Contradictions and Class Struggle
This leads to contradictions between the degree of development of productive forces (increased productivity) and the relations of production. These contradictions become the motor of history, leading to the class struggle or clash between two antagonistic classes fighting for their class interests. The contradictions between productive forces and the owners of the means of production are contradictions between people who participate in those relationships. The contradictions at the human level are produced by the different positions of each person in the production system. The removal of such opposites can only come through struggle.
4. The Social Revolution and the Transition to Socialism
The social revolution means the destruction and transformation of certain relations of production, changing the capitalist mode of production to the socialist mode, and with it, given the interdependence, changing the ideology, the forms of political and religious institutions, etc.
5. The Goal of Communism
The purpose of the class struggle through the social revolution is the disappearance of classes and the establishment of communism, a classless society. This is the culmination of the revolutionary process, when maximum freedom is achieved, and alienating elements are absent. This is the end toward which history is going, and it can be accelerated by the action of the proletariat (who should lead the revolution, according to Marx) in the revolutionary process.
The new mode of production, socialism, ends alienation and capitalist exploitation and allows for the realization of human potential. Some authors have seen in this view of Marxism a utopian vision of history. This new society is one of associated producers. The biggest change crucial to achieving this is the abolition of private property, eliminating the antagonism of classes. Communism advocates a society without private property and without classes.
Along with the abolition of the above items, the bourgeois state and law must be abolished as oppressive institutions. The abolition of the state is the final step in the revolutionary process that leads to communism. First, political power must be obtained through the dictatorship of the proletariat, where the people take political power and requisition the means of production. Similarly, bourgeois law should be abolished in stages.
abolished in stages.