Classical Sociological Theory

Marxism as an Alternative theory

Marxism

The contrasting social divide of 19th century Europe was one of the principle-instigating factor that inspired Karl Marx and Frederick Engels to come with Communist Manifesto in 1848 . It called upon the working classes to declare war upon the bourgeoisie . In the opinion of Marx , capitalism with its inherent tendency to favor property accumulation , market system and wage labor system had always worked in promoting the clout and wealth of aristocracy while working to weaken the peasants class and sending them to the levels of

subservience and just subsistence (Freedman , 1990 , 1 . The philosophy was a major intellectual achievement of Marxism as it described the ills and problems affecting the society not in terms of faulty ideology and philosophy but in the terms of economic forces of capitalist development (Aune , 1994 , 17 . As Freedman (1990 , 2 ) states , Marx viewed the major conflicts and events of world not as consequences of ethnic lingual or religious factors but purely through economic perspectives He argued that capitalism and its resultant class system have been the main instrumental factors in creating the present structure of human society and behavior

Marxism attempts to correlate the entire progress and evolution of human civilization with Marx 's staunch view that economic factors have determined the history of humanity . It attempts to understand the origin , functioning and structure of all the social institutions on economic models and assumes that once this knowledge is gained , it can be employed to recreate the social that is beneficial for every member of society , while eliminating the ills of poverty , inequality and class distinctions (ibid

Marxism also views state (government ) as an instrument of the ruling class that works to protect the interests of the economically prosperous segments at the cost of the working population (Freedman , 1990 , 2 . The premises of this argument lies in the fact that typically every state is influenced heavily by the rich and wealthy section of society and as such its policies are inherently oriented towards safeguarding these affluent sections . The working-lower class is just treated as a tool to further the riches of this affluent section , while providing them with bare facilities that are hardly sufficient to maintain their existence School and churches are also viewed as extending arms of the same system that continuously works to maintain , and in fact , promote the social divide . Thus nation and state are essentially nothing but exploiters of working population . As a consequence , terms like patriotism and nationalism hold no meaning to the oppressed working society , which is made to work not the for the benefit of the nation but for the few and selected elite group of people that in their limited numbers represent an entire nation

A careful study of Marxism reveals following three major elements that define the structure of the world of Marx (Heilbroner , 1980 , 21

Materialist approach to History : The historical analysis of activities of people 's activities that creates conditions of subsequent class emergence and struggle...