What is Marxism?

Capitalism In order to understand Marxist theory you need to understand what capitalism is. Capitalism is the social system which now exists in all countries of the world. Capitalism is an economic system which co-ordinates all these countries, by creating products and services (commodities) which people purchase Capitalists (people who live off the means of production) live off the profits made by the workers Capitalism is dependent and encourages the ownership of private property

Economic base The economic base is the economic system a country or countries have decided to use to co-ordinate their society The UK is co-ordinated through capitalism An alternative economic system is communism such as North Korea

Superstructure Marx argued the economic base determined the type of superstructure The superstructure is everything within that society such as the government, military, judiciary, schools, hospitals, media etc

Bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie are the people who own/run the means of production. The bourgeoisie are often known as the ruling class The ruling class own the company’s which employ the workers who pay them money to work for them The bourgeoisies/ruling class own the firms which make the surplus profit which the ruling classes keep

Proletariat The proletariat are the workers or working class The workers, work in the factories make the surplus cash (profit) for the ruling class In capitalist societies the proletariat can only sell their labour to the ruling class

Social class conflict Because the relationship between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is one of exploitation there is perpetual conflict between these two classes

Marxism and the family Althusser a French Marxist, argued that in order for capitalism to survive people must be taught how to think and behave, and the family (as well as schools and the mass media) was the best mechanism for doing this. Prior to this Marx saw the family as a mechanism through which private property (a key part of capitalism) could be passed on heirs – as parents living in a monogamous relationship would know who impregnated whom!!! Therefore the monogamous nuclear family developed with the emergence of private property.