Marxism

Concepts and Theories

Marxism is both a philosophy of science (dialectical materialism) and a theory of history (historical materialism). Marxism seeks to explain human social evolution by identifying a causal process that is internal to history and is focused on the transformational changes occurring in the most advanced and dynamic societies within a given mode of production. The mode of production refers to the set of property relations (e.g., feudalism or capitalism) within a given historical period that ultimately shape the legal and political superstructure as well as individual and collective consciousness. Put schematically, history can be understood as a progression from slave societies to feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and finally to communism.

All pre-communist modes of production are characterized by distinctive forms of exploitation and resultant class struggle. Within each, internal contradictions arise and intensify as the forces of production—technology, social organization, and class consciousness—develop and eventually conflict with social relations of production. The maturation of these forces in tandem with sharpening class consciousness and political leadership establish the conditions for a social revolution that gives birth to a more advanced stage of history.

The concept of proletarian revolution distinguishes Marxism from alternative interpretations of socialism and social democracy. Capitalism generates vast wealth in the form of profits (surplus value), but the ability of capitalists to distribute these profits to the working class is circumscribed by the need to maximize capital accumulation to compete favorably with rival capitalists. Capitalist economies routinely produce mass poverty and suffering and generate progressively more serious and more generalized global crises that cannot be resolved as a result of government intervention. The conditions of collective or social labor under capitalism provide the basis for the working class to become conscious of itself as a class and to recognize the necessity of socialist revolution. The “dictatorship of the proletariat” is a transitional stage that paves the way for the eventual abolition of [Page 550]classes and private property, culminating in a new phase of human history—communism. Because the concept of revolution is clearly at the center of Marxist thought, the resilience of global capitalism and the experiences of the Soviet Union and China present a serious challenge to Marxism. Nevertheless, Marxist scholarship with respect to history and contemporary capitalism retains considerable moral and analytical force.

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