Marxist Views of Socio-Economic Class (AQA GCSE Sociology): Revision Note

Key thinker: Marx (1857-1967): Social class in the 19th century

• Karl Marx saw social stratification as a mechanism which allows a privileged few (the bourgeoisie) to exploit the many (the proletariat)

• Marx believed that the relationships between social groups and the means of production were the source of stratification systems

• As agriculture developed, it produced surplus wealth and the accumulation of private property

  • This led to the emergence of a ruling class (bourgeoisie) that gained control of the means of production

  • The proletariat sells their labour to the bourgeoisie to survive

• The proletariat experiences alienation under capitalism because they lack control over production and the products of their labour

• Ruling class ideology seeks to justify the exploitation of the proletariats through ideas about competition and the free market

  • This distorts reality to create a positive image of capitalism as normal and natural

  • This ideology leads to false class consciousness among the proletariat, as they accept this as the status quo

• Marx believed that class struggle was the driving force for social change

  • Over time, the bourgeoisie would get smaller and much richer

  • The proletariat would get bigger and much poorer

• Marx hoped that this polarisation would produce a proletarian revolution and an ideal communist society in which the class system would disappear

  • This way capital, land and factories would be owned by the community as a whole

Evaluation of Marx

• Some sociologists believe that his theories still provide the best explanation of the nature of capitalist society

  • There are vast differences in the distribution of power and wealth between property owners and workers in contemporary society

  • This is the key social division in society, according to contemporary Marxists

• However, critics argue that Marx's theories are out of date because capitalist societies like Britain have not undergone a revolution

  • This may be due to increased standards of living and the development of the welfare state

• New Right theorists are critical of Marxist theory and emphasise the benefits of capitalism and the opportunities for social mobility

• Feminists argue that Marx and Marxists ignore the divisions in society based on gender and others argue that they neglect ethnicity

Weber: Social class in the late 19th century & early 20th century

• Weber was inspired by Marx but offered a more complex interpretation of social stratification

• Writing in the early 20th century, Weber argued that classes develop depending on an individual’s market situation

  • In the labour market, one class of people hired labour and another class sold their labour

  • Those who share a similar class situation also share similar life chances

    • i.e. the chances of being successful in life and opportunities in education and health

• Like Marx, Weber argued that the major class division lay between those who owned the forces of production and those who did not

• He identified four main social classes, each having a different amount of status, wealth and power:

  • property owners

  • professionals (e.g. doctors, lawyers, engineers, judges, accountants)

  • the petty bourgeoisie (e.g., shopkeepers)

  • the working class

• These different classes have different market situations or life chances in the labour market, which shapes patterns of stratification

  • Working-class people shared similar life chances but shared different life chances from property owners

  • Professionals had greater life chances than the petty bourgeoisie because of the demand for their services

  • Members of the same social class:

    • enjoyed similar lifestyles

    • has similar educational backgrounds

    • shared a similar social status to their families

• In Weber's view, a person's status (prestige) may differ from their class (economic) position, such as:

  • members of the aristocracy (Lord or Lady) may not be wealthy property owners but their title gives them status

  • A National Lottery millionaire may be very wealthy but lacks status

• Weber differed from Marx in that he saw no evidence to support the polarisation of classes

  • He argued that the middle class expands rather than contracts as capitalism develops

• He rejected the view that a proletarian revolution was inevitable and that political power derives only from economic power

Criticisms of Weber

• There is a longstanding debate between those sociologists who adopt a Marxist perspective on class and those who follow Weber

• New Right theorists are critical of Weber's theory view, which is accused of bias and ignores social mobility and opportunities created by capitalist societies

• Feminists argue that Weber ignored the divisions in society based on gender and others argue that they neglect ethnicity

Global capitalism in the 21st century

• Marx's theories of class have been updated by contemporary Marxists and applied to the mechanisms of global capitalism in the 21st century

• According to Scambler (2016), a very tiny percentage of people (less than 1%) possess wealth and/or power in this age of financial capitalism

• The power elite that run the state are now more influenced by a small group of global capitalists, such as CEOs and financiers.

• Together, these capitalists and members of the power elite make up a ruling oligarchy

  • Although they control us, they are hardly ever accountable to us

• Some claim that large multinational corporations (MNCs) have excessive power

  • By taking advantage of weaknesses in the tax laws of various nations, these MNCs are able to influence government policy and avoid paying taxes