Marx, Engels & Weber on Capitalism
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The problem of capitalism was the principal theme of both Marx and Weber. But the two theorists approached the topic from different angles, guided by distinctive overarching questions about modern capitalist society. Marx's (or, more properly, Marx's and Engels') central concern was the discovery of the economic laws that explained how capitalism worked and how it would, eventually, break down as its excesses created the conditions for revolutionary change. Weber, however, was primarily interested in how capitalism came to be and why it developed in Western Europe rather than some other civilization. Because they had disparate views of history and of economics Marx and Weber developed very different answers when addressing similar questions. Following a brief discussion of these underlying positions the differences become apparent in the comparison of Marx's and Weber's concepts of power and their theories of social stratification in capitalist societies. Marx saw history in terms of social classes which are economically constituted and have always "stood in constant opposition to one another," engaging in battles that ended every time "either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes" (Marx & Engels, History, 1994, p. 4). For Marx, therefore, capitalism was merely the most recent version of social organization in this historical process and, having looked at its vast inequities and misery, he was intent on
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ch other under industrial capitalism) into "an ever expanding union" of workers spells the beginning of the end (Marx & Engels, History, p. 10).
Both types of power in the class struggle--that held by the dominant group and that exerted by those whom they oppress--are economically determined. The hegemonic group could not dominate unless they controlled the means of production and the new class can only achieve its revolution when the economic system has exhausted itself and is compelled to recognize the dominance of a new form of economic relations. And when this happens, as the example of the transition to capitalism showed, the newly dominant class assumes power accompanied by political and social institutions that support its interests. In addition its power is expressed by means of the ideology, or ruling ideas, that it can impose. As Marx and Engels argued, these ideas are simply "the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships . . . hence of the relationships which make one class the ruling one" (Marx & Engels, Materialism, 1994, p. 15). The power inherent in economic domination is the same power that enables the ruling group's domination of politics, social institutions, and is even expressed in their ab
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Approximate Word count = 3571
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)
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