A PROJECT ON

THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION OF KARL MARX

Submitted to:
Dr. Ayan Hazra
(Faculty Of Sociology)

Submitted by:
Neeraj Ekka
Roll No. 78
Semester I
Sociology Major
Submitted on: 24-11-2014

HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, RAIPUR

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................ - 2 OBJECTIVE......................................................................................................... - 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................... - 3 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. - 4 IMPORTANT CONCEPTS OF KARL MARX: At a Glance.........................................- 5 CLASS AND CLASS CONFLICT............................................................................ - 6 CONCLUSION................................................................................................... - 13 REFERENCES................................................................................................... - 14 -

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my teacher, Dr. Ayan Hazra for his unstinted
support. The topic given to me for my project is one that is very close to my heart and I hope
I have done justice to it. Thank you, jurists, masters of law and various governmental
departments for the expression of your ideas, thoughts and immense amount of knowledge in
the form of the various books, articles and opinions. Without all of this, it would have been
impossible for me to complete my project. My gratitude also goes out to the staff and
administration of HNLU for the infrastructure in the form of our library and IT Lab which
was a source of great help for the completion of this project.

Neeraj Ekka

OBJECTIVE

The main objective of the project is to explore changing function, structure and to describe
Karl Marxs views on society which includes The Marxian Theory of Class and Class
Conflict.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research is descriptive and analytical in nature. Secondary and Electronic resources have
been largely used to gather information about the topic.
Books and other references as guided by Faculty of Sociology have been primarily helpful in
giving this project a firm structure. Websites, dictionaries and articles have also been referred.

Footnotes have been provided wherever needed to acknowledge the source.

INTRODUCTION

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, sociologist, communist, and revolutionary,
whose ideas played a significant role in the development of modern communism and
socialism. He was born on 5th May, 1818, in Trier, in the Kingdom of Prussia's Province of
the Lower Rhine. He came from a long line of rabbis on both sides of his family and his
father, a man who knew Voltaire and Lessing by heart had agreed to baptism as a Protestant
so that he would not lose his job as one of the most respected lawyers in Trier. At the age of
seventeen, Marx enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Bonn. The following year
Marx's father sent him to the more serious University of Berlin where he remained four years.
Finding a university career closed by the Prussian government, Marx moved into journalism
and, in October 1842, became editor, in Cologne, of the influential Rheinische Zeitung1.
Marx's articles, particularly those on economic questions, forced the Prussian government to
close the paper. Marx then immigrated to France.

Karl Marx committed himself to the cause of the exploited working class and declared a kind
of an intellectual battle against the exploiting rich or the capitalist class. His views and
thoughts were so powerful and influential that more than one-third of the worlds population
was under their grip until recently. Marx is considered as one among the pioneering
sociologists because his views and thoughts have a great sociological significance. 2 Karl
Marx introduced into the social sciences of his time a new methodology, new concepts and a
number of bold new hypotheses. Marx elaborated his conception of the nature of society and
the means to study it in a more precise and empirical manner than the social theorists before
him did. He believed that he could study history and society scientifically and discern
tendencies of history and the resulting outcome of social conflicts.

The project will explain the key notion of class as used by Karl Marx. We shall study in detail
about the various criteria that are basic for calling any collectivity a class. The project would
also give a brief overview of history including the future of human society on the basis of
Marxian work.

1 a liberal newspaper backed by industrialists

2See, C N Shankar Rao, Sociology: Principles of sociology with an introduction to social thoughts 724 (6 th
revised edition 2010)

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS OF KARL MARX: At a Glance

We shall be dealing with different concepts of Karl Marx in brief and his Theory of Class
and Class Conflict in detail. The following concepts of Marx have aided sociological thought
significantly.

Dialectical Materialism
Dialectic materialism is one of the basic principles of Marx. Oxford dictionary defines
Dialectic as the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions. Dialectics is the study
of contradicts, which lie at very heart of existence. Marx thought that nature or matter existed
independent of and outside the mind. According to him, matter is primary and the mind is
secondary.

Materialistic Conception of History

Marx's view of history, which came to be called the materialist conception of history, is
certainly influenced by Hegel's claim that reality (and history) should be viewed dialectically.
According to Karl Marx it is not the ideas or values which human beings hold that are the
main sources of social change; rather, social change is prompted primarily by economic
influences.3 Marxs historical materialism is primarily concerned with how people work
collectively to produce a life together. How do they produce food, shelter and other material
good and what kind of division of labour exists which enables them to do so.

Class and Class conflict

According to Marx, Class is the manifestation of economic differentiation.4 He defined a
class as all those people who share a common relationship to the means of economic
production. From the Marxian point of view in all stratified societies there are two major
groups; a rich class and the poor class, or the Haves or Have- nots. The theory of class
conflict is central to Marxian thought. Every stage in history, there is a war between the
classes.

Alienation
3 See, Anthony Giddens, Sociology 18 (6th Edition 2010)
4 See, C N Shankar Rao, Sociology: Principles of sociology with an introduction to social thoughts
732 (6th revised edition 2010)

Alienation literally means separation from. According to Marx alienation is a phenomenon

related to the structure of those societies in which the producer is divorced from the means of
production and in which the capital dominates the worker. Alienation is always selfalienation, i.e., ones alienation from oneself through ones own activity. To quote Gajo
Petrovic we can say, And self-alienation is not just one among the forms of alienation, but
the very essence and basic structure of alienation. It is not merely a descriptive concept; it is
also an appeal, or a call for a revolutionary change of world.

My research project would mainly deal with the Marxian theory of class and class
conflict. The central theme of Marxs analysis of social class and class conflict is to
discover the principles of change of society.

CLASS AND CLASS CONFLICT

This chapter will explain the key notion of class as used by Karl Marx. We shall also discuss
how and why classes come into conflict with each other. We will seek to understand the
impact of these class conflicts on the history of development of society.
The word class originated from the Latin term classis a group called to arms, a division of
the people. Bottomore stated, Social classes are de facto groups; they are relatively open,
not closed. Their basis is indisputably economic, but they are more than economic groups.
They are characteristics group of the industrial societies which have developed since the
seventeenth century. Now the question arises What is social class? A social class may be
defined as a stratum of people of similar position in the social status continuum. 5 Marx
defined a class as all those people who share a common relationship to the means of
economic production.

Class Structure
Marx recognised class as s unique feature of capitalist societies. This is one reason why he
did not analyse the class structure and class relation in other forms of society. Under the title
of Social Classes Marx distinguished three classes, related to the sources of income.

A labourer whose main source of income is labour.

A capitalist whose main source of income is profit or surplus value.

A landowner whose main source of income is ground rent.

At a broader level society could be divided in two major classes.

The Haves or bourgeoisie

The Have-nots or proletariats.

Marx accepted the importance of social class. Marx has tried to even give a concrete
definition of social class. According to him A social class occupies a fixed place in the
process of production.6

Criteria for determination of class

Which human grouping will be called a class and which human grouping would not be
considered as class in Marxian terms? Members of a social class may be distinguished by two
sets of criteria.

Objective Criteria

People comprise a social class if they share the same relationship to the means of production.
For example all the faculties have a similar relationship with the university. However, for
Marx, this relationship is not sufficient to determine the class as according to him it is not
sufficient for class to be class in itself but it should be class for itself.
(a) Subjective Criteria
Any collectivity or human grouping with a similar relationship would make a category not a
class. In fact, the members of any one class not only have similar relationship but they also
share a similar consciousness of that class. This similar consciousness of a class serves as a
basis for uniting its members for organising social action. 7 This similar consciousness of a
class serves as the basis for uniting its members for organising social action.
By class in itself Marx means the objective criteria of any class. Class for itself is a similar
class consciousness towards acting together for their common interests. This is what Marxs
class is.

Emergence and Development of Classes

6 See, Sujit Kumar Choudhary, Thinkers and Theories in Sociology: From Comte to Giddens 47
(2006)
7 See, IGNOU study material, Sociological Thought

Marx believed that human society evolves through different stages according to the means of
production or on the basis of economic regimes that is dominant at each stage. He predicted
that all social development will culminate into a stage called communism.8 The first four
stages are

Primitive Communism

It was the first and the lowest form of organisation of people and it existed for thousands of
years. There is no private property. In this system of very low level of forces of production,
the relations of production were based on common ownership of the means of production.
Therefore these relations were based on mutual assistance and cooperation. In such a
situation, exploitation of man by man did not exist because of two reasons. Firstly the tools
used were so simple that they could be reproduced by anyone. Their production was just
sufficient to meet the needs of the people provided everybody worked. It was a situation of
no masters no servants. All were treated equal.

Slavery

Primitive tools were perfected and the stone and wooden implements were replaced by
bronze and iron tools.in this one class owns and exploits the members of another. The
relations were based on the slave owners absolute ownership of both the means of
production and the slave himself and everything he produced. The owner left the slave only
with the bare minimum necessities to keep him away from dying of starvation.in this system,
the history of mam by man and the history of class struggle began. The development of
productive forces went on and slavery became an impediment to the expansion of social
production.

Feudalism

It is a system in which a class of aristocratic landowners exploits the mass of peasants. This
stage was the result of the revolts between the classes of slaves and slave owners together
with raids from the neighbouring tribes. The progressive development of the productive
forces continued under feudalism.9 Man started using inanimate sources of energy besides
human labour. New machines and implements were invented and the old ones were
improved. The peasants or the artisans could own the implements or small parts of land.
These forces of production underwent changes due to new discoveries. All this led to the
8 It is the idea of a free society with no division or alienation, where mankind is free from oppression
and scarcity.
9 The economic situation coming before the inevitable rise of capitalism

growth of mass scale manufacture. This brought the unorganised labour at one place. As a
result there started a class conflict leading to peasant revolution against landowners. The new
system of production demanded free labourer whereas the serf was tied to the land, therefore
the new forces of production also changed the relations of production culminating into a
change in the mode of production from feudalism to capitalism.

Capitalism

It is the system in which the owners of wealth exploit the mass of peasants. Large scale
machine production is the specific feature of the productive forces of capitalism. This
vigorous growth of the forces of production was helped by the capitalist relations of
production based on private capitalist ownership. Under capitalism, the producer is legally
free, being attached neither to the land nor to any particular factory. They are free in the sense
that they can go to work for any capitalist, but they are not free from the bourgeoisie class as
a whole. The free labourers became conscious of their class interest and organise themselves
into a working class movement to intensify its struggle against the bourgeoisie class. This
class conflict aimed at overthrowing the capitalist system. Marx said that the capitalist system
symbolises the most acute form of inequality, exploitation and class antagonism. This paves a
way for a socialist revolution which would lead to a new stage of society i.e. communism.

Development of Social Classes

According to Karl Marx, classes did not exist during the era of primitive communism when
the classes were based on a sort of socialist mode of production. This stage represents a
subsistence economy which means production only meets basic survival needs. Classes
emerge only when the productive capacity of society expands beyond the level required for
subsistence.10 This occurs in an agricultural economy where a few individuals are freed
from food production to do other tasks. As agriculture developed, surplus wealth, that is
goods above the basic subsistence needs of the community, was produced. This led to an
exchange of goods and trading developed within and between communities. Marx stressed
that mere organisation of production is not a sufficient condition for the development of
social classes. There must also be a physical concentration of masses of people, easy
communication among them, and repeated conflicts over economic rewards and growth of
class consciousness.

Variables That Define The Marxian Concept of Class

(a) Conflicts over the distribution of economic rewards between the classes.
10 See, C N Shankar Rao, Sociology: Principles of sociology with an introduction to social thoughts
733 (6th revised edition 2010)

(b) Easy communication between the individuals in the same class positions so that ideas
and action programmes are readily disseminated.
(c) Growth of and class consciousness in the sense that the members of a class have a
feeling of solidarity and understanding of their historic role.
(d) Profound dissatisfaction of the lower class over its inability to control the economic
structure of which it feels itself to be the exploited victim.
(e) Establishment of a political organisation resulting from the economic structure, the
historical situation and maturation of class consciousness.11

Theory of Class Struggle or Class Conflict

The theory of class struggle or class conflict is the central theoretical orientation of Marxian
thought. The idea of class conflict emerges from the notion of surplus value12 and the
transformation from class in itself to class for itself. The main promise of the Marxian
Class theory is to be found in his famous work The Communist Manifesto, 1848 reads,
The history of the hitherto existing society is the history of the class struggles. Freeman and
slave, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on uninterrupted, now hidden and
now open fight, a fight that each time ended either is a revolutionary reconstitution of society
at large or in the common ruin of the contending classes.13
From the quoted text, it is clear that at every stage in history, there is war between the classes.
The landowner exploits the landless, and the factory owner exploits the workers. Between
classes there is endless antagonism and hatred. Class conflict is the severest form of class
antagonism.
It is clear that according to Marx the mode of production or economic structure is the base or
foundation of society. Any change in this infrastructure will cause fundamental changes in the
superstructure and consequently in the society. The changes in the mode of production are
essentially changes in the forces of production and relations of production. Marx has said that
the history of hitherto existing society is a history of class struggle. This means that the entire
history of society is studded with different phases and periods of class struggle.

Essential Aspects of the Theory of Class Conflict

11 Id, 732
12 It represents economic basis of Marxists critique of capitalism.
13 Quoted in C N Shankar Rao, Sociology: Principles of sociology with an introduction to social
thoughts 734 (6th revised edition 2010)

Marxs analysis of class and class struggle are mainly considered to be the critique of the
capitalist society. The major elements of this theory can be categorised as follows:

The development of the proletariats

Marx described this in terms of the transformation from class in itself to class for itself.
This transformation only takes place when individuals occupying similar positions on this
basis of common interest by developing class consciousness among them. At this stage, a
network of communication develops and finally it gets converted into struggle against the
bourgeoisie. Marx equated the rising class proletariats. He assigned his life to planning a
victory for the proletariats. Marx stressed on acquiring the knowledge of the history of
society and the laws that regulate its organisation.14

Polarisation of classes

Polarisation of classes is the inherent tendency found in capitalist society. In a capitalist

society there could be only two social classes: (1) The capitalists and (2) the working class.
Though Marx had repeatedly referred to the intermediate state such as the small capitalists,
the petti bourgeoisie, and the lumpenproletariat, he was of the firm belief that at the
height of conflicts these would be drawn into the ranks of proletariat. In the capitalist stage of
development, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat become polarised and the conflict takes
place between them.

The theory of surplus value

Marx believed that the capitalist gather profit through the exploitation of labour. The workers
produce more wealth in the form of food, manufacture goods and services that is necessary to
meet their basic needs. In other words, they produce surplus wealth. But they do not relish
the surplus they have created. Instead, those who own the means of production are able to
take hold of this surplus wealth as profit for their own use. In this process of accumulation
of surplus wealth by the haves, the have-nots become poorer and poorer.

Pauperisation

Poverty of the workers is only due to the exploitation of workers by the capitalists. But this
same exploitation helps the rich to become richer. As Marx says, the wealth of the
bourgeoisie is swelled by large profits with corresponding increase in the mass of poverty; of
14 See, IGNOU study material, Sociological Thought

pressure, of slavery, of exploitation of the proletariat. 15 The proletariats are condemned to

toil for no more than the barest necessities of life. With this society gets divided into rich and
poor. Therefore according to Marx, poverty is the result of exploitation not of scarcity.

Alienation

Alienation literally means separation. The economic exploitation, dominance of power and
inhuman working conditions lead to increasing alienation of man. Alienation results from a
lack of sense of control over the social world. The social world confronts people as a hostile
thing, leaving them alien in the very environment that they have created.16 Thus, man is not
free to work according to his choice. They are forced to work. Alienation in the Marxian
sense of the term cannot be overcome by the reorganisation of the economy, however radical
the programme of such transformation may be.

Class Solidarity and Antagonism

With the growth of class consciousness among the working class, their class solidarity
becomes crystalized. The working class becomes integrated internally which would help to
intensify the class struggle. Because of this class feeling and solidarity, the workers are able
to form associations against the bourgeoisie in order to make provisions beforehand for
occasional revolts.

Revolution

The final result of class struggle when it reaches its height, a violent revolution breaks out,
which destroy the structure of capitalist society. This revolution is most likely to occur at the
peak of an economic crisis, and then the conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie
becomes violent. Marx predicted that the capitalists would grow fewer and stronger as a
result of their endless competition; that the middle class would disappear into the working
class, and that the growing poverty of the workers would spark a successful revolution.

The dictatorship of the proletariat and the inauguration of the communist society

The revolution terminates the capitalist society and leads to the social dictatorship of the
proletariat. The dictatorship of the proletariats ultimately leads to the establishment of a
classless society that is formation of communist society. In this new society the means of
producing and distributing wealth would be publicly and not privately owned. This new
15 C N Shankar Rao, supra note 735
16 ibid

classless and casteless society would be free from exploitation of all sorts. In short, it can be
said that at the peak of an economic crisis, ultimately a classless society, i.e., a communist
society is likely to be created with the social dictatorship of the proletariat.

CONCLUSION
This research project discusses the concept of class and class conflict in the history of
development of society as given by Karl Marx. He defined class in terms of peoples
relationship to the means of production and their class consciousness. In Marxian terms, the
history of society, so far is the history of class struggle. The successive class conflict and
change in mode of production has led to change in the stages of society from slavery to
feudalistic and feudalistic to capitalistic system. The final social revolution would transform
the capitalistic system into communist system where there would be no more classes, social
inequality and class conflict.
The lower class or the proletariats are unable to control the economic structure. The havenots establish a political organisation which resulted from the economic structure, the
historical situation and maturation of class consciousness. It also explains that the material or
economic conditions are more important than the ideological or spiritual things.

REFERENCES
Bibliography

Anthony Giddens, Sociology (6th Edition 2010)

Paul B Horton & Chester L Hunt, Sociology (6th edition 2010)

C N Shankar Rao, Sociology: Principles of sociology with an introduction to

social thoughts (6th edition 2010)

Webliography

http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/marx.html visited on 27 August 2010.

http://www.sociologyguide.com/thinkers/Karl-Marx.php visited on 27 August

2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx visited on 30 August 2010.