Concepts:
In that same vein, the Communist Manifesto brings into thought several concepts that it wants you to keep in mind throughout in order to grasp the theory and idea Marx spells out. The first is the important concept of cyclical history discussed in the previous section, that of “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx 1848). The other major concept in the Communist Manifesto is the idea of revolution being necessary for change on the scale that Marx explains communism to be. The way class struggles and the state work in his time and historically have, in his view, only served as tools to further ruling class (bourgeoisie) interests. This makes it paramount that revolution takes place in order to finally break this cycle once the proletariat is armed with the tools needed to challenge the bourgeoisie. This leads directly into Marx’ next important concept relating to this proletarian revolution, that of what communism is and what happens after this revolutionary action. Marx does not go too far in describing precise steps a proletarian government would take in order to establish true communism, but he does mention several measures that work to further the establishment of a working class government such as: the abolition of private property, heavy progressive income tax, abolition of rights of inheritance, centralization of credit in the hands of the state with a central bank, joining manufacturing and agricultural industries, free education for all children, and the elimination of child labor, among other things (Marx 1848). We will discuss in more detail the meaning and critiques of these concepts in the empirical section, for now it is only important to note them as concepts involved in the functioning of communism in Marx’ view.
Hi Sam,
I really enjoyed reading your category of Marx’s theory in the Communist Manifesto. You did a great job pointing Marx’s most significant theory at the beginning when you wrote “all historical developments narrow down to economic class struggles.” Class struggles include serfs vs. lords and the most common class struggle of the industrial age, the conflict between the working class and the ruling class. In other words, the proletariat vs. bourgeoisie. The industrial age struggle became a struggle between the powerful and the powerless or another way of looking at it would be the oppressor and the oppressed. You did a great job focusing on Marx’s highlights in your theory of the battle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie as part of capitalism’s final stage before ushering communism. You also effectively responded to what communism and capitalism mean according to Marx, when you wrote that to remain in power, the bourgeoise gives in to some of the proletariat’s demands to deceive them until the working class is strong enough to rise against the ruling class. Marx claim that changes in class dynamics are a result of the ruin of the common class. According to Marx, the destruction of the concept of working and ruling classes is the beginning of communism. You clearly write about Marx’s main theories and your sentences are concise and clear.
Good job! You did well to focus on the central ideas in Marx and how he frames the discussion of historical struggle.
With central concepts in Marx, however, I think you could have gone into a bit more detail in explaining the within-theory ideas and the categorizations which Marx’s claims depend on. So, who are the actors in his theory? For example, what is the proletariat? Who is the petit bourgeoisie? How did factory production exacerbate the class conflict? Using these I think you could further your critical discussion and whether you believe these categorizations sufficiently lend themselves to Marx’s claims or if you see an issue with his characterizations or concepts and whether there are any discrepancies.
Overall, you do a fantastic job outlining the major ideas of Marx. I like how you included information about Marx tracing class struggle historically, such as serfs vs lords and now proletariat vs bourgeoise. I agree with Sachal and would recommend you spend more time defining the major concepts, such as proletariat, bourgeoise, means of production, etc. Those are the most basic concepts that someone unfamiliar with the Manifesto would need to learn. With this, you could discuss whether you think these concepts have any place in modern society, or maybe those labels do accurately describe class conflict in modern Western civilization. Similarly, you could have addressed the rules of a Communist society that Marx envisions, such as instituting free public education, abolishing certain private property, and ending inheritance. Those are some of the most concrete visions Marx describes about post-Revolution society, so it would be nice to include those in the Concepts wiki. Great job with this wiki overall, because you very successfully outline the key parts of Marx’s theory of historical development!
To comprehend Marx’s political theory is important to understand some concepts. This post makes a good synthesis of the most important concepts provided in the Communist Manifesto. However, it is also important to keep in mind the definition or the concept that Marx provides of the state. Marx defines the state as the concentration of political power, properly speaking, “it is simply the organized power of one class to oppress another.” Explain that the state is an instrument of class domination. This is important because it makes us question the role of the state on the economy and other affairs.