Conflict Theory

Marx begins his analysis of social order with the historical development of materialism that results in the industrial capitalist society. For him, the history of society depends on the understanding of “real process of

Marx viewed society as a conflict between two classes in competition for material goods. He looked at the history of class conflicts and determined that the coming of the industrial age was what strengthened the capitalist revolution. Marx called the dominant class in the capitalist society the bourgeoisie and the laborers the proletariat. The bourgeoisie owned or controlled the means of production, exploited laborers, and controlled the goods produced for its own needs. He believed that the oppressed class of laborers was in a position to organize itself against the dominating class. He felt that it was the course of nature, that is, it is the way that society evolves and that the communist society would be free of class conflict, "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." (Marx & Engels 1948, 37)

Conflict perspective or conflict theory is one of the major sociological approaches to analyzing social problems. This perspective originated with Karl Marx, a famous philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist, and whom many credit contributions to the birth of modern

The Marxist theory of historical materialism understands society to be determined by the relationships which people enter into with one another to fulfill their basic needs, for instance to feed and clothe themselves and their families. In general Marx identified five successive stages of the development of these material conditions in Western Europe.

Marx's ideas on labor value are very much alive for many organizations working for social change. In addition, it is apparent that the gap between the rich and poor is widening on a consistent basis. According to Marx, the course of human history takes a very specific form which is class struggle. The engine of change in history is class opposition. Historical epochs are defined by the relationship between different classes at different points in time. It is this model that Marx fleshes out in his account of feudalism's passing in favor of bourgeois capitalism and his prognostication of bourgeois capitalism's passing in favor of proletarian rule. These changes are not the reliant results of random social, economic, and political events; each follows the other in predictable succession. Marx responds to a lot of criticism from an imagined bourgeois interlocutor. He considers the charge that by wishing to abolish private property, the communist is destroying the "ground work of all personal freedom, activity, and independence". Marx responds by saying that wage labor does not properly create any property for the laborer. It only creates capital, a property which works only to augment the exploitation of the worker. This property, this capital, is based on class antagonism. Having linked private property to class hostility, Marx

Marx believed that production in Capitalist society worked in a way that the rich factory owner benefited and the poor factory workers lost. In other words, the Capitalist system was inherently meant to benefit the rich and exploit the poor. Furthermore, Marx believed that humans create change in their lives and in their environment through practical activity in the practical world. With this philosophy, it follows that Marx believed that practical activity in the practical world leads to the desire to meet the needs of people in society. The need to meet society’s individuals’ desires leads to production. Production is very much related to consumption in that

In their materialist reading of history, Marx and Engels proclaim that with the necessity for survival driving history/ and man to the development of social interaction and thus the establishment of the economy, staged progressions will come forth as a result. To Marx the economy will ultimately be responsible for all aspects of society. It will be from the development, and circumstance stemming forth from such development of the economy, that the stages of history will progress. And as such to Marx and Engels Capitalism will be a stopping point upon this staged progression route of history. In this way it is concluded that Capitalism is a mode of production stemming from the economy [means and relations of production], which in itself is a result of the history of materialism [the innate struggle for survival and the social relations built upon this struggle].

The philosophy of Karl Marx begins with the belief that humans are inherently cooperative with common characteristics and shared ends. To human beings, life is considered an object and therefore, humans make their “life-activity itself the object of his will and of his consciousness” (Tucker 76). In other words, humans are able to think, imagine, and “produce even when he is free from physical need and only truly produces in freedom therefrom” (p. 76). It exemplifies that idea that humans not only have the capability to create things for survival but express themselves in what they produce, within the standards of the human race or universally. When capitalist wage-labor enters the picture, it forces these shared ends and the freedom of expression in human production to cease, causing a rise of competitiveness among

Conflict theory began with Karl Marx and his belief that capitalist societies are powered and controlled the conflict between social classes. Those who possessed a means of production, called the bourgeois, and and those that had to work for the bourgeois, called the proletariat. He felt that all elements of society were based around this struggle for control and for resources (Kendall 2014: 12 ). Conflict theorists believe that all humans behavior, all our social norms, all our systems of government, our employment, and our systems of education are the result of conflicts between competing groups. All of society is shaped by this great power struggle. Conflict theory depends on an unequal power balance, one group controls the other group, using their social power to keep the other group subjugated. Conflict theory has evolved past just considering class and has began to consider other competing groups. The struggles between men and women, rich and poor, whites and people of color, and LGBTQIA individuals and straight people are now taken into consideration by conflict theorists. Society is constantly changing because of the battles between conflicting interests (Kendall 2014: 17).

The conflict theory approach emphasizes issues of inequality and change in relation to social class, money, race ethnicity and gender. The conflict theory pinpoints the belief that these social classifications are parasitic: only benefiting one group while negatively affecting another. In particular, the social conflict approach focuses on the struggles that lower-class people face in a world where the rich and powerful benefits at their expense. Persons of the lower-class are often disadvantaged, since they are not given a chance to move ahead and are always stuck at the bottom of the social ladder. Upper-class individuals are able to fully educate their children, and hence, their generation will always be rich and powerful. However, a weakness

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.

Karl Marx, also a philosopher was popularly known for his theories that best explained society, its social structure, as well as the social relationships. Karl Marx placed so much emphasis on the economic structure and how it influenced the rest of the social structure from a materialistic point of view. Human societies progress through a dialectic of class struggle, this means that the three aspects that make up the dialectic come into play, which are the thesis, antithesis and the synthesis (Avineri, 1980: 66-69). As a result of these, Marx suggests that in order for change to come about, a class struggle has to first take place. That is, the struggle between the proletariat and the capitalist class, the class that controls

This crucial opening to The Communist Manifesto holds the key to understanding Karl Marx's conception of history. Marx outlines history as a two dimensional, "linear" chain of events. A constant progression of class divisions being created and overthrown, one after the other, until the result is the utopian endpoint, otherwise known as communism.

Marx argued that it is this ownership which leads to the most essential fact of materialist theory of history which is the division of society into economic classes.[1](Morrison, 1995). Marx saw societies as social systems which could be divided into two parts: the economic base and the superstructure. The economic base contained a particular mode of production as well as the economy and class relations. It is also the foundation upon which superstructures of political, legal, and social institutions are built. The economic base is also the basis of various forms of consciousness and knowledge.

According to Haralambos et al (2004), Marx’s theory began with the view that it was crucial for humans to produce food and materials in order to survive, and to do so it was necessary to enter into relationships with other people. Fulcher et al (2007) suggested that Marx saw societies as social systems that were divided up into two specific parts, these were suggested by Marx to be the base and the superstructure. The base provided the mode of production and the superstructure provided stability through certain social institutions such as the legal and political systems. Marx also argued that the material conditions created contributed to the shape of society, he referred to such conditions as ideologies. According to O’Donnell (1992) Marx suggested that such societies could have only ensured material survival through the exploitation of the propertyless and by using sophisticated means of organised production. Therefore people first must be able to eat and maintain adequate clothing and shelter before they engaged in influential sociological activities such as politics and literature. Individuals were not able to access essential elements such as shelter unless they were able to engage in paid employment through a particular mode of