Marx\'s Theory of Social Change

Marx's Theory Of Social Change

Karl Marx (1818-1883) is regarded as the founder of 'socialism'. He was a great philosopher and thinker. There have been written large number of books on Marx's works but still every now and then a scholar or Marxian student comes up with a point that itself is the subject of many books and volumes, thus it is impossible to circumspect in a short discourse the Marx's view point on today's topic which is so severe that it has almost gained the status of human tragedy.

Today's topic of discussion is, why large number of people from developing or third world countries move to developed countries like U.S. And England etc. The answer to this question can be drawn from common sense that it is the desire and effort of every individual that he/she wants to provide to oneself and family all the available facilities and privileges and this is exactly in comport with the laws of nature. In order to achieve this objective the logic says that if adequate resources and opportunities are not present in a place, society, city or country where one is living, one should migrate to a country where not only are they easily available but there is ample room for growth and personal fulfilment, this imparts security and satisfaction as well. But is this really the only cause of this phenomenon or is it superficially the part truth and reality contains much more in depth facts and reasons in it. So we will try to analyze this phenomenon in the light of concepts and theories of Karl Marx and see how much more insights do we get from it.

According to Marx; what is man? The answer to this question can be given in much more better way if it's known he is where and when. This is important information for knowing man's nature and capacity. Most of Marx's philosophy is based upon the fact that it is very nature of man to bring the change in the world. This transformation process is known as Labour and this capacity of man to bring about transformation is called Labour power. Marx did not believe that all people can work in the same way and neither did he believe that whatever someone is doing is totally the individual work of that person, instead Marx considered work as a social process and the conditions and forms under and through which people work are established socially and are subject to change with passage of time. In his analysis of History Marx treated Means of production (including labour, materials and machinery etc.) and Relations of production (norms, procedures and systems etc.) as separate domains and collectively termed them as Mode of productions, for example as in the case of European societies he observed that they've developed from feudal mode of production to capitalist mode of production. Another important observation that he made was that the society will undergo disintegration and confliction when there is no synchrony between the social and economic trends. Further he commented that various classes in a society pursue different interests and this in turn creates disparity and conflict. According to Marx the war of interests among existing classes of society has always been present in the human history and this has been the major cause of friction in society. He observed that as the capitalist hands started gaining power in society; one by one those segments in it that were not strong enough or stable were exposed vulnerable to the exploitative hands of capitalists; this weak segment was forced to give up many of its inherent rights like labour power. This caused Alienation among them; as discussed earlier Marx was of the view that it is the basic instinct of man to bring change in the world and this ability was termed as labour but under the influences of capitalists forces people were driven to sell their this right against money that allowed them to survive and live in the capitalist environment. Marx called those people who sell their labour power for money as 'proletarians' and to them who bought the labour power he termed as capitalists or 'bourgeoisie'; they are normally the people who own resources and technologies and call the shots. He disclosed that the proletarians inevitably outnumber the capitalists. The capitalist mode of production is capable of yielding tremendous growth because the capitalist can reinvest profits in new technologies. But Marx argued that capitalism was subject to cycle of crises. Marx argued that capitalist society undergoes a continuous cycle boom followed by collapse with marked upheavals in between. He rightly pointed out that the net result of all this process is further strengthening and enforcement of bourgeoisie class and dilipidation of proletriats.

Karl Marx assumed that if the proletariat class was to take control of means of production this class would probably indulge in social relations that would promote the benefits for everyone and thus making the society less prone to severe crisis. But this of course is more of an idealistic scenario where fairness and equal benefits for all are the name of the game, the reality on the contrary is quite different and the amicable solution of this problem is nearly impossible, and this shifting of authority from ruling class to common people would entail well orchestrated, large scale violent movement because naturally elite class weilding authority would no way be willing to let go without offering resistance. His theory advocates setting up of socialist system in which there is proletariat rule in placed and interests of proletariat are the deciding factors for establishing and implementing the policy. According to him this class struggle as mentioned in his "Critique of the Gotha Program," "between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat." The wonderful aspect of his work is that he was cognizant of the significance of strong institutional structures that are the important assets of democracy. These institutions ensure that irrespective of the class inlinations and background the rule of law and justice prevails and merit is up held always. These strong institutional structures could be seen in today's world in countries like the United States and Britain etc. At this point Marx agreed that the transformation could occur through peaceful means, and this might be the reason why these strong democratic countries are able to withstand jolts of social upheavals.