Elitism, Marxism, and pluralism are all political theories that can be used to understand how the modern state as we understand a live in it today functions. All three theories highlight the importance of different things and stress successes or failures of the state to be attributed to different functions or aspects of state operations. Although it is important to understand how different aspects of each perspectives can help understand how the modern state functions, it is imperative to identify most strongly with one theory in order to fully understand the modern state. Elitism speaks about an individual or group of powerful elites that govern the state, hold the power both economically, and politically. Marxism is all about the bottom …show more content…
The decision in this case comes down to the distribution of power, and how that distribution of power affects the Canadian society.
Elitism is that believe that certain people or members of certain classes or groups deserve favoured treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority as an intellect, social status or financial resources. C. Wright Mills explains that the power elite is composed of men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences. This is to mean that some people innately have more power of persuasion then others, the actions of a small elite group are of more importance, and have a greater affect then those of people not deemed elite. There are several different categories of elites that have an impact on the governance of the modern state, wealth, tradition, and authority. People from all categories have a large impact on society, and are involved in the creation of organized governing systems. In Canada it can be seen that there are certain individuals that have come to their position because of their social status, arguably, Justin Trudeau is one of them. He being a grade school teacher is not the natural pick as a candidate in upcoming national elections, yet, because of the legacy of his father, he becomes, for many, and easy pick. This is a prime example of elitism in Canada. This however is the
The soundbite criticisms of capitalism are legion, yet it’s harder to offer alternatives, aside from the vague notion of 'something else'. Despite the carnage of trying to socially engineer equality in the 20th century, nevertheless the myth persists that capitalist wealth creation is superfluous and money is readily available to a small number of elitists called a government under common ownership, who distribute, or simply print more paper. Ironically, the ones shouting the loudest against capitalism are often those dependent on the profits of capitalism to provide the welfare payments needed to keep them alive.
Plural-elitism is the pluralistic relationship between multiple elitist groups in the government. Although no group may have power over another, the groups themselves are elitist which defies the pluralistic standpoint. In addition, the elitist groups may not hold the interest of the public above all else. It is seen that the American government is neither an elitist dictatorship, nor a system where power is evenly distributed to the full extent among the people. An example of the plural-elitism relationship in the American government can be seen in the relationship between all the states. Each state has a governing power in the capital which provides order over the entirety of that state. State government is usually run by upper-class white people who do not always look to the peoples’ best interest. These state governments exist in each state which creates a pluralistic sharing of power throughout the United State. Individual state governments and their relationships to one another across the United States exemplify a plural-elitism standpoint.
Marx describes the problem in great detail in the first chapter. He feels there is a problem between the bourgeoisie and the proletarians. The bourgeoisie were the oppressed class before the French Revolution and he argues that they are now the oppressors. The proletarians are the new working class, which works in the large factory and industries. He says that through mass industry they have sacrificed everything from the old way of religion, employment, to a man’s self worth and replaced it with monetary value. He is mad that the people of ole that use to be upper class such as skills man, trades people, & shopkeepers, are now slipping into the proletarians or working class. He
Throughout John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, Gene’s internal struggle is reflected in the war taking place. In the beginning of the story, Finny tells Gene that he was reading the paper and saw that “[the United States] bombed Central Europe...”(25). At this point in the story, it is 1942, which is the midst of World War II. This reflects Gene’s attitude toward Finny. As the war starts to escalate and the United States enters, Gene starts to loathe Finny for reasons that are entirely from Gene’s head. When Finny returns to Devon for the winter session, he has convinced himself, and soon convinces Gene, that “there isn’t any war”(115). Around this time, Gene pushes away his hateful thoughts towards Finny and convinces himself that Finny and him
The early 20th century socialist revolutionary theorists Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxembourg and Leon Trotsky believed that the withering away of the state and the removal of the capitalist mode of production was a necessary outcome if the individual was to ever realize their true nature as being free, equal and self-determining. This, however, could only be achieved through the development of the proletariat’s class consciousness and their defeat over the bourgeoisie. It is in this manner where both socialist revolutionary theory and practice share a dialectical relationship. However untied in their revolutionary visions of this international process, these theorists differ in what the role and functions of the revolutionary party should be in the historical development of the new socialist state.
Different textual mediums have the effect of exploring various representations of political personalities and situations and their impact on individuals and society. This is apparent in Aldous Huxley’s satirical novel Brave New World (BNW) (1932) and Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi (1982) where both composers use their mediums to showcase different perceptions of politics and people for a range of audiences. Huxley’s BNW creates social critique on how the growing trend of consumerism, totalitarianism and science may impinge on the lives of citizens. Gandhi recreates the events of a historical figure to represent the impact of colonisation on society. Both texts present control as well as freedom through commenting on political personalities,
on the nerve near the ear) was greater on the side of the head that the cell phone was held.[13]
The French Monarchy for example, is a great example of elitism, which resulted in the French Revolution (Bell). In present day, Israel can be described as an Elitist society, divided based on religion, and such action does not only affect Israel, but also rest of the world (Graves). Whether it's the a big and powerful country, or a small city in the middle of nowhere, handing over powers to the hands of a few never ends up with a positive result. In the case of Baltimore, elitism will have disastrous consequences due to the vulnerability of the politics and race relations. Baltimore, a multicultural city, is home to people of many different backgrounds, and beliefs. While elitism on one hand, promotes views of a very few common minded people, Pluralism promotes diverse ideas (England). Diverse ideas are important in order to discover the issues among different racial groups (Seong). Without diversity of tackling issues, the issues may never be discovered, thus will remain unresolved. In a pluralist society, people from different background discusses their problems with each other, which promotes understanding between people, while elitist society halts ideas and
The Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) had brought about significant changes in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and technology and subsequently established an era of unprecedented economic growth in capitalist economies. It was within this era that Karl Marx had observed the deprivation and inequality experienced by men of the proletariat, the working class, who had laboured excessively for hours under inhumane conditions to earn a minimum wage while the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class, reaped the benefits. For Marx it was this fundamental inequality within the social and economic hierarchy that had enabled capitalist societies to function. While Marx’s theories, in many instances have been falsified and predictions
According to Marxism, there is a struggle or conflict between individual rights and social rights. In many regards, Marxism places more emphasis on societal rights than it does on individual rights. In fact, some critics even state that Marxism ignores the rights of the individual altogether. As can be observed when Marxism is implemented under the umbrella of communism. However, Marxism takes into account the inequality and unfairness that exists in society. The inevitable truth is that contrasting groups in society will always conflict with one another and will be unable to agree on the way in which resources should be distributed. Furthermore, there is also a difference between genders, specifically in terms of the equity of how the roles
The ideology of Marxism, established by German philosopher Karl Marx, is a collectively known set of assumptions of a political ideology, which focuses especially on analysis of materialist interpretation of historical development, or on class struggle within the society. The primarily approach of Marxism, nonetheless, was the critique of capitalism. The strength of his inquiry lies in belief of inevitable shift from capitalism and he aims to advocate the new form of ideology and economy, the socialism. The title of this essay is provocative as in today´s world, there exist many proponents who claim, the core of Marx conception of ideology is still relevant in the 21st globalised world. However, Marxism is relevant to the extent to which
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 and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto states, “The first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy” (1888:32). Marx predicted that once proletariats had seized power, the state would abolish capitalism through collective ownership, taking economic control away from the free market and subsequently liberating society from alienation and oppression. This would give rise to a socialist society of equality, ultimately leading to communism. This essay discusses the strengths and limitations of democratic socialism in achieving Marxist socialism. In the UK democratic socialism has bought about
All economic theories share common roots, they attempt to address the basic question of how an economy can, and should, be maintained. One of the most influential economic philosophies is Marxism. The fact that economic theories can share common roots is especially evident in Marxism; It even shares a basic premise of laissez-faire with capitalism, a philosophy it directly contradicts (Sowell 12). In studying Marxism, two basic necessities must be addressed; the nature of Marxism and its basis, and the political and economic implications of Marxism.
This next unit of theory is entitled "Ideology and Discourse." The theorists we're examining--Althusser, Bakhtin, and Foucault--are discussing how ideology works, and how ideologies construct subjects. All of these theorists are coming from a Marxist perspective, using ideas and terms developed in Marxist theory, though only Althusser actually claims to be a Marxist. So to start off, I want to talk a bit about some basic ideas of Marxist theory.