Marx’s thinking has been of great influence over the past hundred years. The exploitation of the working class in the capitalist system by the ruling class is central to his thinking. According to Marx, this exploitation was not an unjust event. Marx opposed capitalism because of his idea that history was developing in such a way that a better system was possible: communism. This ideal could be realized through class struggle.
Criticism of liberalism
Karl Marx strongly criticized the followers of liberalism. He refuted the principles of a neutral liberal state and a free market economy. The Liberals believed that through these two principles security of every person and property would be guaranteed. In addition, a liberal state would ensure that everyone was treated equally. According to Marx, these ideals did not exist in practice. In contrast to the Liberals, who emphasized the individual, Marx argued that much more attention should be paid to different classes within society. There were so many economic, social and political inequalities between these classes that one could not speak of equal treatment, according to Marx.
Class struggle and evolution
While liberal thinkers were so focused on the sovereign individual, Marx saw man more as a social being where emphasis should be placed on the social relationships between individuals. The special attention that Marx gave to the phenomenon of class had major consequences for his way of thinking. He saw the class structure as the key to better understanding the relationships between all those individuals. However, classes were a creation of history and would disappear in time. Previously in history there had been no class society because there was no major production activity. Only when a certain group within a society manages to gain extra profit (surplus value) from production to the detriment of other groups can we speak of a distinction between classes within a society and a class struggle will arise. In this case there is exploitation by one class compared to the other class. I will come back to this in more detail later.
Marx saw history as an evolution, an ever-further development. Over the course of history, five phases could be distinguished with different modes of production; from a primitive community to a classical, a feudal, a capitalist and finally a post-capitalist phase.
Marx viewed the capitalist system very negatively, in contrast to the liberal thinkers who seemed to accept this system. Returning to the phenomenon of class system, Marx divided society involving a capitalist system into two classes. One class did have means of production (capital) and consisted of landowners, industrialists, etc., the so-called capitalists or bourgeoisie. The other class had no means of production at its disposal and consisted of workers, the so-called proletariat . The first class exploited the other class. This requires further explanation.
Capitalism and the next step
Marx assumes a substructure-superstructure theory, the substructure is formed by means of production and production relations, which together form the productive forces. These three factors dictate the superstructure that consists of things such as state, politics, culture, etc. The productive forces (technology) determine the relationships in the economy. In a capitalist system, the employee (laborer) receives a certain wage, which Marx calls the market value. The point, however, is that the employee’s work yields more than he actually gets back in wages. The use value , which the employee should receive, is greater than the market value. Marx calls the difference between these the surplus value, which can be seen as a kind of profit. The capitalist pockets this surplus value to increase his own capital. Marx sees this pocketing as exploitation of the proletariat. Continuous technological innovation will increase the use value, which will mean that the surplus value will also increase and this will allow the capitalist to earn even more profit. The exploitation just explained is the main cause of the class struggle going on within society. Marx therefore believed that the proletariat could fight against this exploitation. The workers must break the process of capitalism by taking common ownership of the means of production.
Marx believed that the capitalist mode of production was the final stage before a fundamentally new political and economic order would emerge that would truly embrace the ideals of freedom and equality; the communism. This view is based on a number of views;
- The current community is dominated by the capitalist mode of production.
- This production aims to generate as much added value as possible and does not meet the needs and desires of all people.
- Capitalism is not a harmonious social order; there is a struggle between the classes
- Capitalism will eliminate itself in the longer term (economic cycle)
- In times of economic downturn, weak companies will fail. As a result, the free market with competing companies turns into an oligopoly or monopoly. (centralization and concentration)
- The worker himself is becoming increasingly aware of the caveats of capitalism and will, as a result, see collective action as the right solution to break this capitalist system. Workers will realize that abandonment of capitalist relations of production is the only path to true freedom.
- The development of the workers’ movement will lead to the achievement of a revolution.
- Communism has a lot in common with another movement, the utopian socialists. Both stood up for workers who, in their eyes, were being deprived of their dignity, freedom, equality and justice.
The role of the State
Marx believed that democratic government could not coexist with the capitalist system. According to liberals, a democratic state was a state that was based on neutrality, stood up for all citizens and was separate from individual interests. However, according to Marx, this neutrality was an illusion and the state had indeed sided with the capitalists by protecting private ownership of the means of production. This protection shows that the state only serves the interests of the capitalist class and therefore ensures that the class struggle continues. There was no true freedom and equality for everyone in society in the current situation. Marx sees the state as an extension of the dominant class (capitalists), the state serves the interests of the ruling class. The state is a class instrument that must make the divided society function for the benefit of this class. With these views, Marx stands in direct opposition to the German philosopher Hegel (whose thinking had a great influence on Marx). Hegel argues that the state can resolve the intensive conflicts between individuals by, on the one hand, providing a rational framework for their interaction in the civil community and, on the other hand, by offering opportunities for participation in the formation of the general political want to. Over time, the modern state would be the center of law, culture, national identity and finally the basis for all development. The state was central to ensuring freedom for every individual. A striking fact was that Hegel attached great importance to the existence of a bureaucracy which he saw as an organization in which all personal interests were merged into a system of hierarchy, specialization, expertise and coordination on the one hand, and internal and external pressure from competence and impartiality on the other. However, Marx saw bureaucracy as an instrument for the benefit of the dominant class.
Marx’s book The eighteenth Brum aire of Louis Bonaparte clearly shows that he distances himself from the view that the state is an instrument of universal insight and an ethically just community that maintains order. Rather, he sees the current form of government as a conservative force that does everything it can to prevent social reforms that could threaten the current dominant class. The state was responsible for a society divided into classes.
The ideal
Marx recognized that the liberals’ criticism of absolutism and tyranny and the pursuit of political equality was an important step in the struggle for emancipation. The problem, however, was that the liberals partly misinterpreted freedom. According to Marx, freedom could not be realized if it meant freedom from capital. Marx not only criticized the current system, he also had a vision of what it should be like.
First, the workers had to become aware of their disadvantaged position, of their exploitation and organize themselves. This awareness and collective action would lead to a revolution of the proletariat, breaking the capitalist process of exploitation. During this revolution the means of production must come into common ownership, which means that the capitalist process will be broken and ended, which in turn will bring about an end to a class society. The common possession of the means of production is the beginning of a new and ultimately final phase of historical evolution; the communism. In the communist system there would be an integration between the state and the community, where all needs were met and where the free development of everyone equaled the free development of all. There was material abundance (the concept of scarcity had disappeared), true freedom and true equality. The communist system consisted of a minimal state that functioned as a direct democracy, inspired by the views of Rousseau and the Paris Commune of 1871. Small communities elect a delegation who are sent to larger administrative units such as a city and/or district. These units in turn also sent a delegation to larger administrative units and eventually a national delegation will be formed. This way of governing is known as the pyramid structure of direct democracy. Any adult person was able to join such a delegation. There was no question of a trias politica or the like. This direct democracy had no parliament and no separation between legislative and executive power (The commune was both). Governments and judiciary powers were no longer necessary within communist society.
However, in the transition from capitalism to communism there was an intermediate step; socialism or dictatorship of the proletariat . This dictatorship would be established at the time of the revolution and would only exist temporarily until communism was fully introduced. This dictatorship has often been misinterpreted by leaders such as Mao and Lenin who allowed a small group of revolutionaries to dominate the state. By this dictatorship, however, Marx means a majority of adults who do not own the means of production.