Marxism – A Level Sociology Revision Notes

Last Updated on January 24, 2017 by

Karl Marx and Louis Althusser are Modernist, Structural Conflict Theorists while Antonio Gramsci is  a Humanist Conflict Theorist.

Karl Marx: Key Ideas

• Two classes – Bourgeois – Proletariat
• Relationship between them is Exploitation/ Surplus Value
• The Base (economy) determines the Superstructure (all other institutions)
• The ruling class have ideological control through the superstructure
• The proletariat exist in false consciousness
• The fundamental problem with Capitalism is that it causes alienation
• Revolution is inevitable because the iron law of Capitalism is that exploitation must carry on increasing.
• Communism is the final stage of societal evolution (the abolition of private property)
• The purpose of research is to find out more about the laws of Capitalism to see when revolution is ripe.

Antonio Gramsci: Humanistic Marxism

• Criticised Marx because he thought individuals are more active, not passive
• Introduced the concept of Hegemony – Ruling class maintain power through Coercive and Hegemonic control
• Ruling class hegemonic control is never complete because they are too few and they have the proletariat have dual consciousness – they can see through Bourgeois ideology.
• To bring about social change the proletariat needs its own organic intellectuals to develop a counter-hegemony – a realistic alternative to Communism, to lead people to Socialism.

Louis Althusser: Scientific Marxism

• Criticised Marx – There are three levels of control: economic, political, and ideological. The Bourgeois maintain control on all three levels and they all reinforce each other.
• They maintain control through the Repressive state apparatus – the army
• More importantly – the Ideological state apparatus – everything else, most obviously education and the media.
• Criticised humanistic Marxism – structure determines everything, people are incapable of having genuinely revolutionary ideas within the existing Capitalist system
• Capitalism needs to collapse before socialism comes about.

Overall Evaluations of Marxism

Eight ways in which Marxism might still be relevant today

• Transnational Capitalist Class (Sklaire)
• Global Exploitation by TNCs (Wallerstein’s WST)
• Evidence of elite control of superstructure – Independent schools links
• Ideological Control – Agenda Setting and Jeremy Corbyn
• Advertising and False Needs
• Alienation – Amazon!
• Contradictions in Capitalism – David Harvey
• Marxism Conference – Organic Intellectuals?

Criticisms of Marxism

• X – More complex class structure
• X – Capitalism is less exploitative (welfare state)
• X – Relative autonomy
• X – Postmodernism – people are free, not under false consciousness
• X – Work is less alienating for self-employed people
• X – Scientific Marxism is economically deterministic (Interactionism)
• X – Failure of communism in Eastern Europe
• X – It is a metanarrative (Postmodernism)