Conflict Theories: A Sociological Analysis

Designed over two hundred years ago, Karl Marx’s philosophy defines specific characteristics known today as the Marxist approach. In this critical approach, whomever holds the power and controls the factories or means of production, consequently controls the whole society. Marx’s opinion states that the laborers running the factories and thus holding the means of production should be the ones holding the power. However, this idea rarely holds true in practical society. Frequently, Marx notes, powerful people hire others to carry out the labor. This division of power reflects current culture. Two main classes or categories of people exist, the bourgeoisie and proletariat. The bourgeoisie is the powerful, or those who are in charge of

Class struggle is the active expression of a theoretical class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, leading ideologists of communism, wrote "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle”. Marx’s notion of class has nothing to do with social class in the sociological sense of upper, middle and lower classes (which are often defined in terms of quantitative income or wealth). Instead, in an age of capitalism, Marx describes an economic class. Membership in a class is defined by one's relationship to the means of production, i.e., one's position in the social structure that characterizes capitalism. Marx talks mainly about two classes that

AQA AS/A SOCIOLOGY ESSAY: CRITICALLY EXAMINE MARXIST PERSPECTIVES ON TODAY’S SOCIETY Classical Marxism is a conflict structural theory which argues that, rather than society being based on value consensus as functionalists would contend, there is a conflict of interest between different groups (social classes) because of the unequal distribution of power and wealth. Marxists are also interested in the way in which social change can occur, particularly in sudden and revolutionary ways. However, there are differences between Marxists especially over the way which social change can come about. For example, humanistic Marxists like Gramsci give a greater role to the conscious decisions and actions of human beings than do structural Marxists

Karl Marx developed his theory on class division by suggesting that all societies have two major classes, a ruling class and a subject class. The ruling class owned a means of production such as land or capital, whereas the subject class did not. Marx argued that this leads to the ruling class exploiting the subject class. The ruling class use a superstructure of the legal and political systems to justify its position and prevent protests by the subject class. In capitalist societies the main classes are the bourgeoisie (capitalist) and the proletariat (working class). In these societies the bourgeoisie exploits the working class through wage labour. The capitalists pay wages to the workers, but make a profit because they pay the workers less than the value of what they produce. Capitalism is the newest type of class society but it will also be the last. Eventually it will be replaced by a communist society in which the means of production

Marxism is a useful conflict theory in helping us to understand why there was obedience, particularly in the past in society. Marx was seen as an economic determinist, as he believed that the functioning and running of society was based upon the economy. Because of this, Marx says that is why there was a divide between the proletariat (working class who have only their skills to sell) and the bourgeoisie (the ruling class who own the means of production). The bourgeoisie cannot operate without the proletariat, as they cannot produce products, and similarly the proletariat cannot operate without the bourgeoisie, as they need them so they can be

According to Marx’s theory, social stratification is created by unequal property relations and by people 's differing relationship to the means of production: either they own productive property or they provide labor for others. In a capitalist society, the bourgeoisie, or the ruling class, owns the means of production, such as tools, machines or resources that can be used to produce commodities or objects with value. The proletariat, or the working class, possess no means of production other than their own labor power, which they sell to the bourgeoisie in order to earn wage and survive. However, Marx believed that the capitalist economic order would corrode eventually, through its internal conflict between two

There are two classes according to Marx; the capitalists and proletariats. The old distinctions that existed under feudalism or previous economic modes are no longer relevant; under capitalism there are only capitalists and proletariats. There exists dialectic, which is the tension between capitalists and proletariats.

His explanation of social class was that it was ‘a group of people who stand in a common relationship to the means of production - the means by which they gain a livelihood.’ (Giddons, 2013). Using Marx’s concept, it can be argued that in every society, past and present, there has been some form of class system; from feudal time when there were the aristocrats and the serfs to more modern society composed of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – those who own and control the means of production, and those who sell their labour for a wage. Marx claimed that those in the bourgeois exploited the proletariat by using their power to take advantage of the systems they could influence in order to please themselves. The bourgeois capitalist ideology was introduced into society through the superstructure, and was extended and drilled into the brains of proletariat through education, employment, politics and the judiciary system to mention a few. Marx therefore argued that there is a subtlety to how the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat. Furthermore, he recognised that in modern society wealth is being created on a massive scale, yet somehow, the working class still remain considerably poorer than the bourgeoisie – he used the

One aspect of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto that is reflected in modern times, is the classification of a divide between the bourgeois and the proletarians. The Marxian theory was developed during the rise of capitalism and represent the higher class who own and control production and the lower class who are employed by and consume the industrialization. In modern times, a small portion of the population are wealthy, business owners while the majority of citizens are middle or lower class, many of whom are employed by industrial corporations. However, Marx describes a war between the classes where there is consistent conflict between upper and lower classes. In modern society, Marx’s concept regarding the derivation of tension in the

The social conflict theory is based on society being a complex system characterized by inequality and conflict that generate social change. Social conflict can be seen all over the world we live in: in sports, politics and normal social engagements and society at large. Karl Marx studied social conflict His entire life and wanted to reduce social inequality. The social conflict theory can be described as favoritism; Society tends to show favoritism to the prestigious members of that particular society. Social inequality is shown throughout the world from situations of race, ethnicity, gender, and age. These factors may dictate wealth, schooling, power, and prestige. The social conflict paradigm views the patterns that benefit

In Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels outline the issues associated with the division of society into two groups: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie is a group that encompasses modern capitalists. The proletariat group pertains to the modern working class. While these two groups appear in today’s world, the authors make it evident that all throughout history there has been a division in society between oppressors and oppressed. They mention that in ancient Rome there was a separation in social order by patricians, knights, plebeians, and slaves. In the Middle Ages, separation was between feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, and serfs. Marx and Engels describe the bourgeoisie era as one that has condensed separation of classes into the two mere classes observed today, where the bourgeoisie are the oppressors and the proletariat are the oppressed.

Marxism: “Society is dominated by a fundamental conflict of interest between two social classes-the capitalist class and the working class”.(Germov &Hornosty, 2012, p.32)

Conflict theory is the theory that human behavior in social contexts is the result of conflicts between competing groups, as different social groups, be they class-, gender- or race-defined, have unequal power and access to power, yet all groups compete for limited resources. This inevitably gives rise to tension and conflict, albeit often of the subtle variety, as oftentimes the conflicts between groups have been institutionalized in society to such a degree that the conflicts and tensions are such an expected part of society that the conflict, and inequality, itself disappears from public sight, and consciousness. For example, an adherent of a world systems theory of conflict would point to the global competition for resources, particularly the inequality between rich and poor nations struggling to provide the basic necessities of life to their inhabitants, as evidence of global conflict. Conflict theories seek to explain the interactions of groups within society, and assert that social order is preserved involuntarily through the exercise of power one social class holds over another (Lindsey, 2010, 7). The conflict between groups is not always obvious or apparent, so it must be unraveled and examined in order to identify and establish the impact of such conflict on society as a whole, as well as individual members and social groupings.

According to Marxism, Capitalist societies can be divided into two major social classes: the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie own the means of production (the land, factories, machinery, raw materials and commercial organizations which are used to produce goods and services) whereas the Proletariat own little or no property and work for wages. The Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat are dependent upon each other in that the Bourgeoisie need the Proletariat to produce the gods and services from which the Bourgeoisie derive their profits while the Proletariat are dependent on the Bourgeoisie for the provision of work and income without which they cannot survive. However the relationship between the two classes is based also upon exploitation and conflict. The Proletariat (the working class) are poorly paid, work long hours in dangerous conditions doing repetitive mind-numbing work causing what Marx described as Alienation; they are poorly housed, poorly educated and in bad health. They are exploited in the sense that they are paid in wages less than the value of the goods and services that they

Human societies have been class based in some way and the class factor has been the most basic dividing or differentiating factor between broad social groups. In the economic sphere that Marx’s theory focuses on, there is a class that own and control means of economic production which could be referred to as the upper class, and there is the class that maybe own nothing, but their ability to sell their labor power in return for wages which could be referred to as the middle or low class. From that understanding, and based on the conflict theory, one might argue that unequal distribution of resources and access