Karl Marx and Max Weber Different Views on Capitialism

Karl Marx and Max Weber were influential sociologists that paved the way for modern sociological school of thought. Both, Karl Marx and Max Weber contributed a lot to the study and foundation of sociology. Without their contributions sociology would not be as prominent as it is today. From the contribution of how sociology should be studied, to how they applied their theories to everyday life has influenced many sociologists. Predominantly, both of these theorists’ discussed the effects of capitalism, how it has developed, shaped and changed society into what it is today. Specifically, Karl Marx’s contribution of the bourgeoisie vs. the proletariat class and Max Weber’s social stratification has helped individuals to understand how modern day society has transformed into what it is today. Particularly, this paper will lie out Weber’s theory of social stratification and Marx’s theory of the bourgeoisie vs. the proletariat class; additionally this essay will also compare and contrast the ideas of these two influential sociologists. Finally this essay will criticize both of these sociologists’ theories and display that Marx and Weber do not explain how modern day society and classes have been formed.

Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber were three historical sociologists. Their views have become world renown and have shaped many ways of interpreting the social structure of many modern societies. This essay will take a glimpse into the three sociologists’ ideals and expose the similarities and differences they may have.

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)

Social classes have been part of an ever changing dynamic since the beginning of society and as the decades pass the relationship between rich and poor, employee and employer has become more apparent with the advent of industrialization. With the gap of wealth and power widening, tension is created and thus competition is a byproduct. Andrew Carnegie saw the world in this perspective and as a wealthy business realized the enormous responsibility he and others like him had to the classes below him while Karl Marx saw two very distinct classes formed as a result from industrialization. Carnegie believed the competition that arose from social classes was a benefit to society and humanity as a whole while Marx believed social struggle was actually a hindrance to humanity because it allowed for the employee to be exploited by the employer. These opposing viewpoints held similar points in

Weber agreed with Marx's perspective of financial class, however progressed promote markers that were additionally critical in deciding a person's social position and power. (Andrews et al., 2012) The key contrasts amongst Marx and Weber get from their distinctive strategies. Weber imagined a photo of class from individual and social particularities. Weber's record of class is substantially more classificatory, and less structuralist seeing the detectable social world as the genius of an inward unique.

Karl Marx expressed his ideas on alienation and Max Weber expressed his ideas on bureaucracy. Marx believes that individuals becomes alienated from themselves when they are alienated from the means of production or in the work place; taking away human beings from themselves. Weber, believed in bureaucracy, in which decisions are left in the upper class hand, such as the state, rather then proletarians; people with the up most power. Marx believed that all humans are have freedom and that their actions are based on freedom. When it comes to alienation, capitalism is what increases it. For example, before there was any type of machines, workers would use their own tools to produce different products. Due to machines and other equipment, under capitalist, each

The first being the proletariat or those who work who own the means of production. The second class being the Bourgeoisie, or the owners of the means of production (Morrison, 2006). Marx believed that because one group had power over another is the root cause for social issues. When Marx saw the conflict between these two classes, he began to look for an understanding how it began. Marx focused on the change to a capitalistic society, by looking at the history of economic development. Marx believed that the economy went though different economic stages.

Karl Marx’s alienation theory, in my own words, states that human beings take to much time to work a job they dislike and slowly watch their lives pass them by. Sooner or later, these people realize they have wasted their lives working a job they dislike. Alienation of the worker from their product is described as, making a product and having no say in how it is produced. An example of the alienation would be a man going to work everyday to please his bosses by making a product that they themselves cannot be apart of the creation of.

Weber argues that social mobility can either move us upwards or downwards depending on our choices and opportunities. While Marx does recognise social mobility, he relates this mainly to the petty bourgeoisie, and its likelihood of being absorbed by the other two classes due to its transitional nature. For Marx, class is a clearly defined and

In short, the methodology of Marx and Weber adopted to analysis the development of capitalist society is different. Both of them may share some similarity in the sense that they included economic condition as a factor, but the differ in the sense that Marx believe in 'historical materialism' and argue that class relation of production is the sole determinant of the society; Weber, on the opposite, reject Marx's idea of economic determinism and argued that the development of capitalist society is explain by combination of unique and contingent events, such as the religion reformation of catholic church to protestant church, also led to the change in people's economic orientation and thus the development of capitalist society. Such a division in methodology is important to our understanding of their different understanding of the theory of the stratification of 'class', an important concept in the understanding of capitalist society.

Marx first sets up his arguments on class by referring to the historical class struggles. “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf,

Both Karl Marx and Max Weber assert that capitalism is the dominion of abstractions and the irrational accumulation of abstract wealth for the sake of wealth. For Marx, the state of capitalism is entrenched in the social classes to which people have bben assigned. Capitalism, according to Marx, is a result of the bourgeoisie 's ascent to economic and political power. This fuels the manifestation of a system that exploits the labour power of the lower socioeconomic classes for the gain of the higher socioeconomic classes. Weber understands the state of capitalism to be the end product of the work ethic of the Protestant branches of Christianity and the secularization of Protestant puritanism, which helped fuel rationalism. Capitalism, according to Weber, is to be understood as the relations and methods of production and commodities, now rationalized. Ultimately, Marx ascribes the ascent of capitalism to the exploitation of people and power, while stressing that such a system can be overcome by a communist revolution, whereas Weber states that such a system is the result of cultural choices and is not as convinced that capitalism can be overcome.

He respectively labels these “two great classes” as the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. According to Marx, the simplification of the class structure into these two opposing groups greatly increases the hostilities between them (1888: 474). These intensified class antagonisms inevitably create a proletariat uprising, as this class “…has to bear all the burdens of society without enjoying its advantages…and from which emanates the consciousness of the necessity of a fundamental revolution…” (1846: 192). Therefore, the forces of production that develop within capitalism will eventually cause the destruction of this system (1859).

Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Max Weber (1864-1920) are two remarkable founding fathers of Sociology. Both of them spent huge effort to study the rise of capitalist society. Marx created conflict theory paradigm called Marxism while Weber inspired the symbolic interactionism, both paradigm are still influential nowaday. This paper would try to discuss the differences and similarities of their understanding of the historical development of capitalist society; their view on social stratification on capitalist society and their understanding on the operation and future prediction of the capitalist society in three parts.

Max Weber was one of the world's greatest sociologists and wrote a lot about the capitalist world he lived in. He had a different conception of capitalist society than most of his contemporaries. He looked at capitalism from all the different aspects that the philosophy was made of. Some of these aspects are state power, authority, class inequality, imperialism, and bureaucracy. To understand how Weber thought one must look at each area separately then put them all together in a global package.