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CAPITALIST STATE
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Marxist analysis of the oppressive economic & political nature of. Class struggle, alienation, profit system, materialism.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Marxist analysis of the oppressive economic & political nature of. Class struggle, alienation, profit system, materialism.
Paper Introduction:
According to a Marxist analysis, the economic and political realities of the capitalist state are by nature oppressive. The founder of Marxism, Karl Marx, was a German philosopher who lived between the years 1818 and 1883. In the 1840s, Marx began collaborating with Friedrich Engels (1820 1895) on a number of essays pertaining to the economic conditions of life. Together, Marx and Engels produced the important and influential text known as the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848). In this work, the authors urged workers of the world to unite against the exploitative bourgeoisie class. Later, in 1867, Marx wrote a three volume book entitled Capital, in which he denounced the injustices of the capitalist system. A reading of these two works provides a strong basis for an understanding of the Marxist critique of capitalism.
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Marx's approach to philosophy was strongly grounded in materialism.This approach stands in contrast to that of the idealists, who believe thatultimate reality is found within the mind. It is also possible that Marx and Engelswere simply wrong in making their predictions regarding the downfall ofcapitalism. 133). 25-26). In some cases, as in afeudal society, the laborers also worked to provide subsistence for theirlords. It has already been noted thatcapitalism treats the products of the workers as "commodities." Accordingto the Marxist theory, the true value of a given commodity is found in thedirect amount of physical and mental labor that was required for theproduction of that commodity. This exploitative class of capitalists includes landlords, retailmerchants, bankers, financiers, and others who "appropriate a portion ofthe total surplus value" for their own personal gain (Wolff, 1984, p. Specifically, the capitalistsystem enables those who own the means of production to treat goods as"commodities" and to thus obtain a profit by selling them in themarketplace. Marx and Engels believed that the class struggle inherent incapitalism would eventually lead to the system's downfall. This is because the surplus value of laboris something that the worker works for and yet is not paid for. According totheir theory of historical materialism, class struggle has always been avital aspect in the creation of social and economic change. In order to accomplish this goal, the capitalists must producemore goods while simultaneously spending less on the production of thosegoods. This realization would inevitably leadto a revolution against capitalism and would thus pave the way toward abetter world in the future. In order for business owners toobtain this surplus value, they must exploit workers by making their laborhave less value. On this point,the Manifesto of the Communist Party included the following claim: "Whatthe bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers.Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable" (Marxand Engels in Tucker, 1978, p. 128).From the Marxist point of view, the capitalist obtains surplus value fromworkers through exploitation. A unique feature of capitalism can be seen in its profit system.Marx and Engels claimed that a worker sells his or her labor to acapitalist employer in return for a wage. Inaddition to products, money also becomes raised up to a higher status levelwithin the capitalist system. Inthis regard, the workings of the capitalist state are such that "theunderlying fact of exploitation - the extraction of surplus value from theworkers - is thoroughly concealed from view" (Wolff, 1984, p. Atthe same time, however, capitalism provides unique opportunities andadvantages to workers that never existed before in human history. Alongside the working class, this profit systempermits the existence of a "non-working class" which derives its incomethrough such surplus sources as profits, rents and interests (Sowell, 1985,p. In the 184 s, Marx began collaborating with Friedrich Engels (182 -1895) on a number of essays pertaining to the economic conditions of life.Together, Marx and Engels produced the important and influential text knownas the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848). In the capitalist system, the ideals forcalculating a worker's wages as well as the price of commodities areundermined by the fact that the means for production are in the control ofprofit-seeking opportunists. The governmentof China has shown itself to be violently oppressive in terms of thefreedom of its people. In this typeof system, the workers generally toiled for the purpose of providingsubsistence for themselves and their families. Wren, Christopher S. New York: Arcade Publishing. (1984). Thus, "they were artisans with their own tools, peasants withthe use of their own plots of land" (Harrington, 1989, p. Thus, Russia became known as the Soviet Union and Chinabecame known as the People's Republic of China. Thus, surplus labor provides a form of income which isitself not earned as a result of labor. Marx and Engels believed that this type of economic systemis a form of exploitation. NewYork: William Morrow and Company. 9). It is also true thatcapitalism permits such contemporary problems as elitism in politics. One way in which capitalism leads toits own downfall is through the processes of competition. 135). Today, it is generallyregarded that both of these experiments in communism have failed in theirefforts to provide a better way of life for their people. Forexample, Marx based his theories on the Hegelian concept that historyconsists of an ever-evolving clash between "theses" and "antitheses" whichin turn lead to new "syntheses." Since capitalism and communism are polaropposites of one another, it may be possible that a new synthesis of thesetwo opposites is yet to come in humanity's future. In thisregard, capitalism is held to be nothing more than "an enormous machine forpumping surplus labor out of the working class" (Wolff, 1984, p. In addition, capitalism leads to its owndestruction as a result of the tendency of capital to become increasinglyconcentrated in fewer and fewer hands. In thissystem, the capitalist expropriates "that private property which is basedupon the labor of the individual" (Harrington, 1989, p. Rather thanallowing individuals to control their own means of production, capitalismplaces this powerful control in the hands of exploitative owners. 7). 129). Inthe Marxist perspective, the class struggle within capitalism is one whichis divided between the ruling class (or bourgeoisie) and the oppressedclass (the proletariat). By warning people of the possibleproblems that might arise, the Marxist critique of capitalism may actuallyhelp the institution to survive longer than it otherwise would. Later, in 1867, Marx wrote a three-volume book entitled Capital, inwhich he denounced the injustices of the capitalist system. Marxism: Philosophy and Economics. Thus, it can beargued that communism failed in Russia not because of the system itself butrather because its leaders were essentially no better than the capitaliststhat Marx and Engels condemned. However, they also noted that the idea ofobtaining surplus labor from workers was not necessarily new or unique tocapitalism. Whereas the true value of labor is equivalent to theamount which is required to "produce the livelihood of the workersthemselves," the surplus value of labor is that extra amount which theworkers must provide to their capitalist bosses for free (Wowell, 1985, p.113). 51). Admittedly, this process works on a subtle level;nevertheless, Marx and Engels saw it as exploitative and unfair because theworkers must provide extra labor in order to provide profit income to thecapitalists, who in turn collect those profits in the form of "unearnedincome" (p. Ofcourse, Marx argued eloquently that capitalism is based on a profit systemwhich covertly exploits workers against their will. According to the Marxisttheory, a sense of alienation also arises from the fact that a minority ofthe people control the wealth and power while the majority are exploitedfor their time and labor. The End of the Line: The Failure ofCommunism in the Soviet Union and China. Thisquote implies the importance in Marxism of economics for determining thenature of a given society. Many things have changed since then, and it is possible thatcapitalism is capable of surviving on a less exploitative level today. 2nd ed.New York: W. Thus, "eventually there are sofew capitalists that it is politically relatively easy to achieve their'expropriation' by 'the mass of the people'" (Sowell, 1985, p. Yet another source of alienation within a capitalist society canbe seen in the fact that capitalism pretends to be a free exchange systemwhile at the same time deceitfully exploiting the labor of its workers. Alleconomic systems, including those based on feudalism or slave labor, arecentered around the idea of producing goods for consumption. References Harrington, Michael. Norton and Company. (199 ). It was predicted that these workers would come to therealization that their "tormentors had lost their social usefulness tosociety" (Harrington, 1989, p. The thingthat distinguishes capitalism from the earlier systems is the fact that itinvolves the production of goods for profit. The exploitation of workers results in various forms of alienationwithin the capitalist society. In this work, the authorsurged workers of the world to unite against the exploitative bourgeoisieclass. 74-75).According to the perspective of Marx and Engels, this procedure was knownas the expropriation of labor. In Capital, Marx made this point byclaiming: "Wherever a part of society possesses the monopoly of the means of production, the labourer, free or not free, must add to the working-time necessary for his own maintenance an extra working- time in order to produce the means of subsistence of the owners of the means of production, whether this proprietor be the Athenian nobleman, Etruscan theocrat, civis Romanus, Norman baron, American slave-owner, Wallachian Boyard, modern landlord or capitalist" (Marx in Tucker, 1978, p. The result of this system is that a small portion of the populationholds a monopoly over the lives of the majority, which consists of theworking class. 82). The factthat the current system has not been overthrown provides an indication thatit must be working on some level. In his essay "Alienation and Social Class," Marxnoted that both capitalists and workers experience alienation. In fact, the system isdescribed in Marxist terms as being virtually devoid of humanity. In capitalism, on the other hand, the means of production are ownedby an elite group of people that Marx labeled the bourgeoisie. Thisidea was expressed by Marx in Capital: "Along with the constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolize all advantages of this process of transformation, grows the mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this too grows the revolt of the working-class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organized by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself" (Marx in Tucker, 1978, p. In other words, the value of the labor isequivalent to whatever it costs to provide food, clothing and shelter tothe worker and his or her family. W. This process of using money tomake money was seen as being the root of the oppression of workers withinthe capitalist system. It was assumed that this newsociety would be founded on the principles of socialism or communism.Through the processes of the class struggle, the workers of the world wouldeventually become angry at the monopoly over their lives which was held bythe capitalists. 438). In this regard, Marx and Engelswere particularly interested in the concept of historical materialism.Engels defined this term by claiming: "According to the materialistconception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is theproduction and reproduction of real life" (Tucker, 1978, p. Thus,"the historically new social relations that defined capitalism emerged whenproduction facilities were widely consolidated into collective means ofproduction, whose surplus was appropriated by private owners who did notwork in them" (Sowell, 1985, p. These authors believedthat the downfall of capitalism was a necessary step toward theestablishment of a free, classless society. 364). 26). 9). This situation has come about because theindustrial revolution has made the means of production too large and toocomplex for individual workers to own and control. Eventually, there areso many more workers than capitalists that it becomes impossible for arevolution of the workers to be avoided. This point wasmade in the opening statement of their Manifesto of the Communist Party, inwhich it was claimed: "The history of all hitherto existing society is thehistory of class struggles" (Marx and Engels in Tucker, 1978, p. 128). Princeton: Princeton University Press. There are various possible reasons for the failure of thesecommunist experiments and the continued success of capitalism. 113). However,this alienation is a positive force for the capitalist and a negative forcefor the worker. When they wrote their texts in the mid-nineteenth century,they were responding to the harsh exploitations of workers in their owntime. According to the philosophy ofmaterialism, ultimate reality is found instead in the physical and socialrealms (Sowell, 1985, p. Capitalism is also unique from previous systems in that itencourages the owners of the means of production to exploit the labor oftheir workers in order to derive even greater profits. Forexample, the feudal society which preceded the rise of capitalism was basedon the economic situation of a serf working in the service of a lord. The nature of capitalism is suchthat larger companies are continually absorbing smaller ones. (1989). The way in which surplus value is derived involves furtherexploitation on the part of capitalists. This situation results in the necessity of further exploitingworkers for their time and labor. Wolff, Robert Paul. Understanding Marx: A Reconstructionand Critique of Capital. (1985). Marx and Engels argued that all societies, eventhe pre-capitalist ones, have their basis in economic realities. 76 ). By extension, materialist philosophersgenerally place great emphasis on the importance of economic concerns interms of determining the quality of life. In fact, it was a concept that had been utilized many timesbefore in pre-capitalist societies. Despite this, it can be seen that thetheories of Marxism have provided important guidelines in helping people tounderstand the mechanisms of capitalism. The surplus value of aproduct is represented by the difference between the actual cost of theproduct (the amount of labor that went into producing it) and the cost atwhich the product is sold to the public. The profit that provides income to capitalist employers arises as aresult of the fact that workers are forced to provide a surplus amount oflabor. The valueof a worker's labor is defined as that which is required to providesubsistence for the worker. Socialism, Past and Future. According to Marxism, this profit isderived from the "surplus value" of products. 81). The actual value of a product is equivalent to the amount of laborwhich went into creating it. Marx and Engels predicted that this classstruggle would eventually lead to a revolution in which the workers of theworld would be victorious (Wren, 199 , pp. These facts are interesting in view of the prediction byMarx and Engels that capitalism would eventually be undermined and replacedby communism. Another reason for thefailure of these communist experiments can be seen in the fact that theleaders of both China and Russia failed to adequately follow the Marxistagenda in fulfilling their "workers' revolutions." In this regard, Marxisttheory requires that a workers' revolution replace a previous governmentwith a temporary government which is supposed to eventually "wither away."In the case of the Soviet Union, the early communist leaders (notably Leninand Stalin) became enamored of their own power and thus refused to allowthe state to simply "wither away" (Wren, 199 , p. A reading ofthese two works provides a strong basis for an understanding of the Marxistcritique of capitalism. As a result of thissituation, the means of production "belong to a separate class, thecapitalists, who are thus in a position to force the workers to producemore than enough output for the workers' own use, and to allow thecapitalists to appropriate the surplus" (Wowell, 1985, pp. Tucker, Robert C., ed. According to the Marxist point of view,capitalism is far from being a humane system. Whereas the non-working class "feels satisfied andaffirmed in this self-alienation, experiences the alienation as a sign ofits own power, and possesses in it the appearance of a human existence,"the working class "feels destroyed in this alienation, seeing in it its ownimpotence, and the reality of an inhuman existence" (Marx in Tucker, 1978,p. TheMarxist believes that alienation arises when the "man-made product""assumes ascendancy or dominance over man" Sowell, 1985, p. However, this idea alone is not enough toprovide corporate owners with the profits that they need in order tosurvive within the capitalist system. According to a Marxist analysis, the economic and political realitiesof the capitalist state are by nature oppressive. Sowell, Thomas. The economic difficulties of the Soviet Unionbecame so severe that the communist party of the nation was forced todismantle itself. Thus, the Marxist definition of surplus value is based on the ideathat: "the total amount of surplus value generated in the economy as a whole in a single cycle of production is determined by the difference between the number of hours of labor performed by wage laborers and the number of hours of socially necessary labor directly or indirectly required to reproduce the work force (to feed, clothe, and house them and their families) for another time period" (Wolff, 1984, p. The founder of Marxism,Karl Marx, was a German philosopher who lived between the years 1818 and1883. In earlier economicsystems, individual farmers and artisans owned their own means ofproduction. In addition to the antagonism of the workers, Marx and Engelsbelieved that "the capitalists themselves unwittingly facilitate theultimate destruction of capitalism" (Sowell, 1985, p. 128). 128). By contrast, true human values such as loveand equality are denied by the greedy mechanisms of the system. The differences between capitalism and earlier economic systems arenot found in the capitalist emphasis on the production of goods. 81). Ideally, that wage should bebased directly upon the amount of labor that has been provided. 483). 26). The Marx-Engels Reader. This extravalue which is attached to the price of goods is the source of profit forcapitalist owners. 26). 473). (1978). According to the economic analystRobert Paul Wolff, "competition moves capital around in search of thehighest rate of return on the total money value of invested capital, withthe result that natural prices in general deviate from labor values"(Wolff, 1984, p. As thenumber of capitalists who own the means of production grows smaller, thenumber of exploited workers obviously grows larger. New York: Simon and Schuster.----------------------- 3 During the twentieth century, two nations made an attempt to fulfilthe type of workers' revolution that was described by Marx and Engels intheir writings. Accordingto the economist Thomas Sowell, this "inversion" of human values "iscentral to the concept of alienation" (p. Becausecapitalists find it necessary to compete in the marketplace, they mustconstantly bring prices down on their goods in order to attract newcustomers.
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