theory postulated an entrenched stratification of society based almost entirely on economic differences between social classes. Marx described a class system under which economic position determined class ranking and influenced mobility, and for Marx there was no true social mobility but a rigid stratification into the bourgeois and proletarian classes. For Marx, social classes were part of a system of economic exploitation, with the bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, controlling the means of production and exploiting the work of the proletariat, or working class. Marx believed that this exploitation of the working class would lead inevitably to class conflict and to the destruction of the system of capitalism with the violent overthrow of that system. It would then be replaced by a period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, leading in time to a classless society, as noted. The succeeding state after capitalism would be a form of socialism. This would only be a transitional period marked by a dictatorship of the proletariat, leading to the next stage of "pure" communism.
Liberalism developed from the Enlightenment's critique of eighteenth-century absolutism as both a political and economic theory. Government power was now to be kept to a minimum in order to promote and protect individual freedom. The idea that that government is best which governs least is an expression of liberal orthodoxy. Liberals wanted to impose constitutional limits on government and to remove restrictions on individual enterprise, specifically to remove state regulation of the economy. In the economic realm, this was manifested as a belief in laissez-faire policies. In the economic realm Adam Smith stated the liberal position in writin
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