Marx's Essay On Historical Materialism And Differences Between Capitalist And Socialist Society.

Understanding the differences between the capitalist and socialist society through the lens of Marxist concept of historical Materialism.

1. The theoretical perspective selected - Marxism, and specifically historical materialism, needs to be clearly described and articulated. Specifically, how the perspective of historical materialism in relation to production, exchange and how this impacts on human relations across the generations needs to be unpacked and described.
2. It would be good to draw on evidence in relation to consumption patterns between developing and developed patterns and to identify how this fits within the Marxist framework used.
4. Try and write as clearly and simply as possible, so that it is easy for the reader to understand.
5. It is a good idea to use sub-headings. Perhaps, the topic area needed to be more refined, and presented more clearly.

Theoretical Perspective - Marxism and Historical Materialism

Marx’s theory of historical materialism refers to the basic ideas of Karl Marx. According to him the development and the structure of the society gets affected by materialistic factors and the economic conditions. This theory states that materialistic conditions consist of technological method of production and the society of human beings is developed by the means of production. Marx’s theory of historical materialism is historical due to the reason that he has found out the evolutionary methods of society consisting of human beings to transform from one phase to the other (Aronowitz 2016). His theory is referred as materialistic because he had the interpretation of the evolutionary development of societies on the basis of materialistic and economic means. The main areas of the essay include the theoretical perspectives of Marxism including the perspective of historical materialism in relation to production, exchange and the way it impacts on human relations across the generations. It also includes an evidence in relation to consumption patterns between developing and developed patterns and the manner it fits in the Marxist theoretical framework.

Marx’s theory of historical materialism was developed by Karl Marx according to Friedrich Engels, but Marx thought that Engels found out the theory of historical materialism in an independent manner. Materialism refers to the structure of the society based on materialism. His theory is the interpretation of the history of society by materialistic means. Almost all societies have observed the same history pattern and each and every history is developed by materialistic methods of foundation (Lichtheim 2015). His theory argued that the main cause of all the changes on a social level should be found in the changes in the, mode of production and not in the brain of human beings. The main element that determines in the historical perspective is the reproduction and the production phases of life. Historical Materialism plays an important role in looking for the different causes of developments and various changes in the society which help in   producing different necessities of life. There are various principles of the Historical Materialism such as the main base of society comprising human beings is the way humans work to gain their livelihood. The mode of production depends on the level of forces of production. The system of division of class depends on the mode of production. Society moves from one phase to another phase when a class that is dominating replaces by a new class that is emerging. Historical Materialism refers to a theory that helps in explaining of a phenomena that is non-economic. Marx’s theory of historical materialism explains that every society consists of various stages of progression and follow evolutionary methods of development. Various stages of the society include Primitive Communism, Slavery, feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism.

Capitalism is the fourth stage in the development of human beings. It exists after the bourgeois revolution when the feudal system was overthrown by the capitalists (Foster 2014). It consists of different types of categories.

Economy of Market - In the capitalists stage, the economic condition is dependent on the forces of the market. According to the supporters of laissez faire, there should be no interference from the government in capitalism on the economic condition. But Lenin, and other Marxists in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, said that the capitalist government should act in a powerful manner  especially in the markets present abroad and also in a direct manner in the socialistic movements.

Evidence of Consumption Patterns in Marxist Framework

Private Property - The means of production is controlled by the bourgeois and the petit-bourgeois classes and not by the monarchs or nobility. The bourgeois and the petit-bourgeois classes control the production means by using commercial methods, for example several types of corporate, which help in increasing the rate of profit.

Bourgeois democracy- After the opposition and struggling for many years, the bourgeoisie had accepted a type of democratic governance. Initially, Bourgeois democracy had a minimum economic status and had a different which depended on the economic status of the voter. It has  also  removed  various classes of population living in the society such as religious minorities, women, ex- slaves, slaves, ethnic , and linguistic (Rojek 2013). Gradually, the bourgeois allowed the other classes of population to have a right to vote. A government which is formed by democratic means is powerful due to financial support from the bourgeoisie.

Wage: In the capitalism phase, the proletariat used to sell its employees in order to survive and was paid as they increased the productivity. According to the supportive class of the bourgeoisie, the market forces refer that the wages get balanced at which the workforce is paid according to the services they provide. But in the real sense, the workers or the employees are paid very less as compared to the services they provided and the productivity that was obtained. The workers were exploited and it was not possible to pay all the workers according to their labour as compared to special workers who were paid more as compared to others because of their level of knowledge skills and loyalty.

Imperialism- In order to gain the access to raw materials, the Capitalist States conquered and dominated to indirectly control other regions or States as they were encouraged by the bourgeoisie. But the main reason to dominate was providing markets that were captive for different types of products. It was done in a direct manner by the threat of war, direct war or by electing a politician connected with that particular nation, or by exporting the capital and controlling the economic condition of the victim state. The control of the Imperialist State on these states and regions can play an important role in the growth and the development of economy and capitalism of this Imperialist State.

The forces of the market had created monopolies from the entities that were successful as the market rewarded individuals who smashed their enemies by the means of war and reduces the profit share of those who are competing with them. But it can also happen that enemies who don’t want to defeat each other or cannot defeat ask for different types of mutual agreements to increase the share of profits and decrease the level of competition.

The individuals who belong to the capitalist group are allowed to spread the practices of laissez faire around the globe. Laws are developed in order to safeguard the finances or the wealth in a parliament that is controlled by the capitalist. The workers work to get wages in capitalism in order to gain the share of profit. But, According to Karl Marx, capitalism has a lot of disadvantages as it leads to an increase in inequality ( Rupert and Smith 2016) Also, as capital needs a return and it leads to an increase in the share of return from individuals such as workers having no capital. Gradually, there is a decrease in the duration of hours for which the workers work because of providing an increase in the capital that is controlled by the class of capitalists. It can be observed that by following the principles of Marx's labor theory of value, an increment in the productivity of labor since 30 years in the United States has lead to a fixed growth in the wages.

Clear and Simple Writing

 It is also called as lower-stage communism or socialist mode of production. It is the fifth Stage which is obtained if the workers succeed and are revolutionary against the capitalist society.  It includes the phase of history in the development of economy and the social relations corresponding to it (Alexander 2014). According to the Marxist theory of socialism, it is a means of production, in which the main criteria are the use-value and hence law of value does not direct the activity of the economy. The production for use of Karl Marx is organized by proper planning of economy but the division of the output of economy is done on the basis of the principle of “to each according to his contribution”. Socialism includes the relation on a social level which has a characteristic feature including the individuals belonging to the working class and they own the means of production and their finance by using self management skills and public means of ownership. The concept of Marxian socialism is totally different from the early concepts of socialism such as market socialism that is based on classical economics like mutualism and Ricardian socialism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels provided very less information about   socialism and ignored to explain in details about how it can be organized. The view of Marxist socialism acted as a main point of argument in the socialist calculation debate.

Communism was divided by Lenin that was the period that followed capitalism into two phases that is socialism and the stateless communism which is also known as pure communism. Socialism is divided in to the following categories:

Property:  The means of production was controlled and they were taken from some capitalist and given to the workers.

Democracy:  According to Karl Marx beliefs, workers should govern themselves by the commune system as he based himself on a proper study of Paris Commune. He referred it as the dictatorship of the proletariat who would plan the production and the resources by overthrowing the governance of the bourgeoisie.

Vouchers for labor: According to Karl Marx, the worker should be provided wages according to his contribution of labor in the society because socialism emerged from capitalism. After the verification of the contribution of the worker, he would be given the credit amount which he can change with different types of goods which were produced by other workers.

According to Marx, socialism is a society which plays an important role in serving the needs and the desires of man. It is important to recognize and realize the true needs of a man by distinguishing between the true and the false needs. This can be possible only when the production aims to serve the man and the capital stops in creating an exploiting the false desires of a man. The main aim of the society is to make the man aware of the false requirements and the real sense of true needs. Socialism involves the use systems based on incentives but a lack of equality will still exist to a less extent because of the fact that all the members of the society will act as worker-owners (Ritzer and Stepnisky 2017). This will remove the negative effects towards inequality due to ownership of the means of production and income of property as result of the owners belonging to small class. Socialism refers to the abolition of the self alienation of human beings which allows the man to get back his identity. The main objective of socialism was the freedom of human beings. It involves the individuals to free themselves from various activities mainly to live. Socialism helps to provide a positive environment in which the individuals can express their needs, desires and interests  and attain freedom from different types of hindrances such as control on a social level that used to force them to work par a particular group of owners living in the society.

Use of Sub-headings

According to relationships at a social level, socialism can be defined as the limit to which the activity of economy in the society is organized and planned by the producers associated with it so that the product that is produced by different assets is controlled by a large number of individuals in a population by means of democratic methods (Samuel 2016).   

The natural relation of an individual to the commodity as use value  is explained to be disturbed by capitalism due to the reason that workers are being kept separately from the products they developed by their labor, they used to approach different types of commodities as objects which were not related to the production conditions.Exchange of commodity leads to the production of different individuals who are bewildered by a large collection of products that is present to be sold in the society of capitalists.

It can be summarized that Marx’s theory of historical materialism states that materialistic conditions consist of technological method of production and the society of human beings is developed by the means of production. His theory is referred as materialistic because he had the interpretation of the evolutionary development of societies on the basis of materialistic and economic means. Marx’s theory of historical materialism is historical due to the reason that he has found out the evolutionary methods of society consisting of human beings to transform from one phase to the other. Marx’s theory of historical materialism explains that every society consists of various stages of progression and follow evolutionary methods of development. His theory is the interpretation of the history of society by materialistic means. Almost all societies have observed the same history pattern and each and every history is developed by materialistic methods of foundation. Capitalism is the fourth stage in the development of human beings. It exists after the bourgeois revolution when the feudal system was overthrown by the capitalists. In the capitalists stage, the economic condition is dependent on the forces of the market.  In the capitalist government should act in a powerful manner especially in the markets present abroad and also in a direct manner in the socialistic movements. The bourgeois and the petit-bourgeois classes control the production means by using commercial methods, for example several types of corporate, which help in increasing the rate of profit.

Initially, Bourgeois democracy had a minimum economic status and had a different which depended on the economic status of the voter. It has  also  removed  various classes of population living in the society such as religious minorities, women, ex- slaves, slaves, ethnic , and linguistic. Gradually, the bourgeois allowed the other classes of population to have a right to vote. In the capitalism phase, the proletariat used to sell its employees in order to survive and was paid as they increased the productivity. The Capitalist States conquered and dominated to indirectly control other regions or States as they were encouraged by the bourgeoisie. Socialism is also called as lower-stage communism or socialist mode of production.According to the Marxist theory of socialism, it is a means of production, in which the main criteria are the use-value and hence law of value does not direct the activity of the economy. Socialism includes the relation on a social level which has a characteristic feature including the individuals belonging to the working class and they own the means of production and their finance by using self management skills and public means of ownership. The main objective of socialism was the freedom of human beings. It involves the individuals to free themselves from various activities mainly to live. Socialism helps to provide a positive environment in which the individuals can express their needs, desires and interests and attain freedom from different types of hindrances such as control on a social level that used to force them to work par a particular group of owners living in the society.

The proceedings of the essay essentially described various aspects in relation to the Marxist framework. However, the pivotal focus has been laid on the historical materialism that is firmly based on the foundation of economic relation capable of undergoing modifications as a consequence of class struggle with the ultimate motto of establishment of a classless society. The history of humankind is not any isolated mechanism but the resultant effect of certain phenomena that in turn are highly discernible and may be attributed to clustered ad interrelated processes. The basis of human materialism relies on the manner in which people act to produce the means of subsistence. The dynamic and continuum phase of this societal aspect is very much dependent on the mode of production that gradually paves the way for class segregation that is driven by the level of productive forces. The concept of socialism is crucial in the respect that refers to the common ownership of the global resources by everyone irrespective of their wealth status by exerting the democratic control over the resources under consideration. This is likely to culminate in the generation of the capitalist form of social structure whereby the production and distribution of goods are enjoyed by a minority section of people who sell the products through payment of wages to the working class and making ways for profits. The money making agendas of the capitalist often turns into exploitation of its workers and engages in reinvestments of a part of the profit in order to accumulate more wealth. A dialectical necessity is borne out of such practice whereby the elimination and withering of the capitalist class becomes inevitable to pave the way for a classless society where equal rights is enjoyed by one and all. Hence, the central essence of Marxism may be stated to emphasize on the labor theory value whereby the dictatorship of the proletariat has been depicted as the only way to achieve the desirable outcome of a classless society. The regulation of production and their subsequent distribution and consumption pattern in the market stands for the type of social structure that will exist in a given region. Hence, understanding of the differentiations between the capitalist and socialist society through the lens of Marxist concept of historical Materialism is ideal.      

References:

Alexander, J.C., 2014. The Antinomies of Classical Thought: Marx and Durkheim (Theoretical Logic in Sociology) (Vol. 2). Routledge.

Aronowitz, S., 2016. The crisis in historical materialism: Class, politics and culture in Marxist theory. Springer.

Foster, J.B., 2014. The theory of monopoly capitalism. NYU Press.

Lichtheim, G., 2015. Marxism (RLE Marxism): An Historical and Critical Study. Routledge.

Ritzer, G. and Stepnisky, J., 2017. Modern sociological theory. SAGE Publications.

Rojek, C., 2013. Capitalism and Leisure Theory (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Rupert, M. and Smith, H. eds., 2016. Historical Materialism and Globalisation: Essays on Continuity and Change. Routledge.

Samuel, R. ed., 2016. People's History and Socialist Theory (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.