Marx believed that the causes and consequences of revolution were linked directly to capitalism. His political theory was that power, and virtually every other aspect of social life, flowed from economic institutions. The reality is that the process by which people fulfill their material needs determines societies' culture. Laws, religion, education, politics, and belief systems are based on this economic reality. According to Marx, the starting point for understanding the nature of power in societies is to understand how people solve the problems of survival (Marger, 1987, pp. 32-33).
Marx's theory of social class and social change as written in the Manifesto of the Communist Party states that the essential condition for the existence of the bourgeois class is economic. The bourgeoisie involuntarily promotes industry. This promotion of industry forces laborers into competition. This conflict creates revolution. The development of modern industry destroys the foundation on which the bourgeoisie owns and produces goods. The fall of the bourgeoisie and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable under the capitalist system (Goldstone, 1994, p. 29).
According to Marx, ownership or non-ownership determines one's economic status and, thereby, one's entire existence in the society. Marx believed that socialism would replace capitalism, just as capitalism had replaced feudalism. Class conflict was a certainty as long as private ownership of property and economic control by one group was allowed. Advancing industrialization and increasing worker exploitation would exacerbate the conflict between the capitalists and the workers. Eventually, the workers would revolt, creating a transitional society in which the workers would control the economy. A classless society was Marx's ideal. All economic exploitation would cease, and acquisitional and individualistic values would disappear.
However, Marx's theory ...