Politics Is A Struggle For Power

The conflict between different classes in a community due to competition in socioeconomic interest and desires of different classes of people is the class struggle. Class conflict is also known as class war. According to Marx theory “ever since human society emerged from its primitive and relatively undifferentiated state it has remained fundamentally divided between classes who clash in the pursuit of class interest”. During the ancient periods, people have been facing a lot of crisis because of creating differences among the classes of the people. The difference in upper class that includes wealthy and powerful people and lower class which includes working class is very wide.The richer and the powerful ones enjoy the highest degree and most comfortable life ,but the poorer people have to live under the control of their masters. Thus, the division between rich and poor leads to class struggle. Therefore, this essay mainly displays about bourgeoisie and proletariat and imbalance of power in ownership of public properties.

However, what happens when the roles of the classes turn? This is Karl Marx predicts within his book The Communist Manifesto. The proletariats are the class considered to be the working class, right below the bourgeoise in terms of economic gain. Karl Marx discusses the number ratio between the two classes and discloses the fact that the proletariat outnumber the bourgeoise. Within the class is a sense of belonging, the bourgeoise live their lavish lives and have most of the say so when it comes to power. Most laws and regulations work in the favor of the bourgeoise class, while the working proletariat class is the class of struggle. This is where it ties into man’s self-alienation. Marx’s idea that the working man has alienated himself from humanity by becoming a machine of society, no longer being able to think for himself but rather only thinking of survival and mass production. By focusing on production for the bourgeoise, man is unable to relate to himself or others around him. He is alienated in the fact that he no longer belongs to a community but more so to a factory. This is beneficial to the bourgeoise because they would not have to fear the alliance of the workers against them if each worker felt isolated from one another. Karl Marx describes within his book the overview idea of the working man as a tool for production, a machine himself, isolated

Moreover, it argues that economic exploitation causes political oppression and the powerful will then use their power to turn the state into a “servant of bourgeois economic” (Marx). For that reason, the only way to breakout of this conflict is through revolution, in which the working class people overthrows the owner of the capitalist system. Conflict theorists might argue, for instance, religion fulfills the bourgeois interests by appeasing the population by pacifying them. In essence, under this theory there will always be conflicts for scarce resources, and whenever one group gains control of the resources there will be an oppressed group. And according to Marx, this can be broken if we have a classless society where resources are allocated equally.

Marx 's conflict theory has a very distinct ideology, it is stated that it mainly focuses on the causes and effect of class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The Bourgeoisie represented the members of a higher society which held onto the majority of the wealth and means also known as the owners of the way of manufacture and the capitalistic. While the proletariat class was constructed by individuals who belong to the working class or the poor. While they would focus on the economical, societal, and governmental implications of the rise of the capitalist economy in Europe. With the rise of the capitalist economy, it was theorized that the bourgeoisie,

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

Conflicts and revolutions have occurred throughout history from the beginning of time. These conflicts and revolutions can all be explained by one theory, Karl Marx’s Conflict Theory. This theory describes a two-class system and how the two classes opposing views ultimately lead to revolts and change of the traditional system. These opposing views stem from a suppressed and exploited working/lower class.

Born in 1818, Marx grew up as the world watched the aftermath of the French Revolution unfold. It’s not surprising that in a feudal society, where social mobility was limited and there were scant opportunities for fulfilling work, that a grand shift in the reach of industry, and capitalism, would have a profound impact on a young Karl Marx. At the core of his work is an emphasis on power relations and class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – it was Marx’s belief that society remained in a state of conflict as a result of competition for limited resources, and that social order was achieved through domination by the ruling class, rather than through democracy and/or conformity; this was characterised by the division of labour, and the consequential exploitation of the working class. This earned Marx his title as a conflict theorist, as well as a reputation as a

"The history of all hithero existing society is the history of class struggle." (Marx & Engels 1848). This statement establishes the setting for the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A bold proclamation, the Communist Manifesto set the stage at the time for illustrating, so distinctly, a prolonged tension between two opposing and intertwined classes of a capitalistic economy. Still resonating in contemporary society, class struggle, especially between these two classes has long challenged the perception and effective utilization of an capitalistic economy; in present American society, in present European society, and many more societal economies around the globe. Defining these two classes is essential to

Conflict theory is a term that was first advocated by the German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx (1818-1883). First and foremost, it is important for us to understand how conflict within society can arise. Marx’s methodology or another phrase; ‘Marxism’, applies mainly to the rise of capitalism (i.e. advanced industrialised societies in which certain people came to own the means of production and exploited workers in order to enrich themselves). Marx saw this as resulting in class struggle and the eventual overthrow of the capitalist class. This is an emphasis on power and the control of people and land leading to oppression; in the context of this essay; oppression being the exercise of an authoritative figure of some kind acting in a cruel or unjust manner, note; this is more likely to apply to an already advanced society.

According to Karl Marx in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscript of 1844, “the only wheels which political economy sets in motion are greed and the war amongst the greedy - competition.” A capitalist society, defined by the systems of competition and private ownership, is divided into two classes - the “property owners” and the “propertyless workers” (701). In this system, workers suffer from exploitation and alienation, while capitalists grow wealthier and more powerful.

All human societies have been class based in some way, shape or form and, interpreting this in the most basic way, it can be said that in every known human society there has been a fundamental division between two broad social groups, the buorgeoisie that own and control the means of production, and the proletariat who own nothing but their ability to sell their labour power (that is, their ability to work) in return for wages. The anger and dissent over the differences in social classes has never wavered

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

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).

     In the Communist Manifesto Karl Marx explains his historical vision of a revolutionary class struggle between Bourgeois and Proletarians. His views are highlighted from the very beginning “The History of all hitherto societies has been the history of class struggles” (50). Focusing on the development and eventual destruction of the bourgeoisie, which was the dominant class of his day, and the rise of the working class, that of the Proletarians.

Karl Marx believed that struggle or conflict among classes was an inevitable feature of capitalism based on the argument that various groups in a society or social classes perpetually fight and compete for resources and power, hence the groups remains polarized against each other. The Karl Marx’s conflict theory views behavior from the perspective of conflict or tension among two or more groups. The conflict does not necessarily translate to violence but rather takes the form of struggle within political negotiations, business, philosophical ideologies or personal attitudes. A critical analysis of Karl Marx conflict theory’s point of view reveals that the conflict of social classes is the major aspect of societal conflict, and is mostly propagated by the differences in economic statuses and inequalities in distribution.