Marx and Engels

Legacies of Marx and Engels The publication of The Communist Manifesto in 1848 by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels formed the basis for a variety of ideologies. Some of these ideas have been modified and adapted by both communists and capitalists in the ensuing years. However, a number of Marx's ideas can be shown to be erroneous and/or outdated in light of events which have taken place since the time Marx and Engels wrote.

Marx believed that human history unfolds in distinct stages, and that these stages follow a distinct order, with one unfolding to reveal the next. According to Marx, scientific laws, which can be discovered by man using his innate powers of reason, govern the progression of these stages, and thus the progression of history can be foretold. This basic idea has often been applied by modern political and economic theorists as they make predictions of how events will unfold in the future.

However, modern theorists are not so convinced as Marx that events follow a strictly deterministic pattern, nor do capitalists or most socialists and communists today believe that the inevitable end point of this proression will necessarily be the end of capitalism. According to Marx, human history is driven by class antagonisms. In many situations and in many examples since Marx's time, societal change can indeed be linked to class struggle.

The American Civil War, the American Civil rights movement, the push for women's rights in the West -- including suffrage movements and the move toward economic equality by women -- all can arguably be traced to foundations, at least in part, in class antagonism. To Marx, the basis of a class system, and membership in a given class, was purely materialistic. That is, economic wealth, as expressed in property ownership and material possessions, was the determinant of an individual's class status and of the relationship between/among classes.

However, there are other bases for class structures in most cultures. Ethinicity, religion, political ideology, personality, and any number of other variables are often determinants of which class an individual becomes identified with. Notably, the widespread revolutions of 1848 which closely followed the publication of the Manifesto were driven much more by issues of nationalism than of economically-determined class. Perhaps the most clear example of how Marx's ideas have not been borne out by experience can be seen in an examination of his claim that capitalism precludes workers' accumulation of property.

Experience has disproven this idea in two major ways which can be disputed. First, Marx could see only two roles for government in an economy: either it must take a laissez-faire position, or it must be in complete control of the economy. However, in many capitalist societies, government has been able to successfully intervene in business matters in a limited way. Minimum wage laws, welfare programs, and unemployment assistance are all forms of governmental influence in the economy, as are regulations concerning workplace safety and health issues.

While there may be disagreement on the degree to which this intervention should be exercised, most would agree that the basic ideas behind such intervention are socially acceptable. In fact, the lack of programs in these areas has often led citizens to push for their institution. Second, Marx posited that capitalism always oppresses the worker. However, in times of economic success, it has been shown that the law of supply and demand causes the labor market to become more competitive.

As a result, workers are empowered to sell their labor among many employers, choosing the wage and conditions in which they will work. Profitable industries in capitalism are generally those which compensate their workers best in economic terms and in amenities, thus benefiting these now-powerful workers. The basis of Marx's argument with capitalism is moral and ethical. According to Marx, the intrusion of money, in the form of wages, into the producer/product relationship leads to the moral devaluation of man.

That is, by taking the product of one's labors and assigning a dollar value to it, capitalism alienates man from the fruit of his labors. In so doing, Marx says, capitalism eats away at the unity of all men as men and as laborers. The problem one might raise with this logic is that man is more than simply his ability or capacity to create or to perform labor. However, in Marx's ideology, based as it is in materialism, there is no room for other standards of man's value.

Of course, there are many examples in Marx's time and in our own of societal and cultural constructs which value man on other bases than simply his productive capacity. By extension of this moral argument, man in Marx's world is ennobled by work.