I. Why Study Marx Anymore

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I. Why Study Marx Anymore? II. Two Central Ideas
in Marxs Sociological Thought III. The Communist
Manifesto Class Struggle as the Agency of Change
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Why Study Marx Anymore?

• Actually-existing communism has had little to do
  with Marxs vision or theory
• Marx was above all a theorist of capitalism, not
  socialism
• Marxs continuing impact on sociology has been
  enormous
• The Marxist paradigm remains the basis of a
  community of scholars

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Two Central Themes in Marxs Sociological Thought
1) Class Analysis
SocialOutcomes Change
ClassStructure
ClassStruggle
Social class and class conflict are the most
important features of a society
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Two Central Themes in Marxs Sociological Thought
2) Structural Political Economy
Mode ofProduction
StructuralContradictions
SocialTransformation
A focus on underlying economic and political
structures and their relationships in explaining
social outcomes and social change
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The Communist Manifesto
The history of all hitherto existing society is
the history of class struggles.

• What does this mean?
• How does Marx define social classes?
• How is his approach different from how most
  Americans define social class?

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• Class-in-itself and class-for-itself
• what does this mean?
• under what conditions does the transition take
  place?
• are some classes better able to achieve this?

Class-in-itself
Class-for-itself

• The problem of false consciousness

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How have class societies varied, according to
Marx? What does he see as distinctive about the
nature of the class structure under capitalism?
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What was Marxs attitude towards the bourgeoisie
(capitalist class)? What historical role does he
see it playing? Is his view an entirely negative
one?
Quotes from the Communist Manifesto
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Marx on the Capitalist Class
Few have sung its praises more highly than
Marx But he sees its historical function as
changing from a positive to a negative one From
advancing the productive forces it comes to hold
them back
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What is Marxs theory of politics and the state?

• The executive of the modern state is but a
  committee for managing the common affairs of the
  whole bourgeoisie.
• Every class struggle is a political
  struggle....a more or less veiled civil war.

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Why does Marx think that capitalism is
inherently unstable, that it contains within
itself the seeds of its own destruction?
It produces its own grave diggers a vast working
class majority Its contradictions make it
increasingly unstable
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How do classes become historical actors? How
does a class move from being a class-in-itself to
being a class-for-itself?
Stages of class development The role of
intellectuals
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The Communist Manifesto Still a powerful theory
of the forces that shape society and social
change Marxs sociology appears to be basically
correct Collins and Makowsky