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Anand, Sanjeev; Mishra, Mukesh Kumar

Working Paper
Influence of Karl Marx’s Political Thought in 20th
Century

Suggested Citation: Anand, Sanjeev; Mishra, Mukesh Kumar (2020) : Influence of Karl Marx’s
Political Thought in 20th Century, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, Kiel,
Hamburg

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 Influence of Karl Marx’s Political Thought in 20th Century

Dr. Sanjeev Anand1

Dr. Mukesh Kumar Mishra2

The task of this paper discusses the role of Marx in 20 th Century and culture today. An analysis of
contemporary political economy Studies works that with the new global crisis of capitalism, a new
interest in Karl Marx’s works has emerged. Karl Marx—German philosopher, economist, and
revolutionary—believed a just world could be achieved only through the evolution of humanity from a
capitalist to a socialist economy and society. The new world economic crisis that started is the most
obvious reason for the return of the interest in Marx. The paper argues that Marx’s Both a scholar and a
political activist, Marx addressed a wide range of political as well as social issues, and is known for,
among other things, his analysis of history. The interpretations of his theories, particularly those on
political economy, have in the course of history generated decades of debate, inspired revolutions and
cast him as both devil and deity in political and academic circles.

Keywords: Karl Marx, Marxist theory, Global Economy

1
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Tata College, Chaibasa. (Kolhan University, Chaibasa).

2
Assistant Professor,JITS College, Jamshedpur.(AISECT University,Hazaribag)

Influence of Karl Marx’s Political Thought in 20th Century

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1. No name in the history of social ideas occupies a place more remarkable than that of Karl
Marx (1818–1883). The nineteenth-century philosopher‘s ideas may help us to understand the
economic and political inequality of our time. On or about February 24, 1848, a twenty-three-
page pamphlet was published in London. Modern industry, it proclaimed, had revolutionized
the world. It surpassed, in its accomplishments, all the great civilizations of the past—the
Egyptian pyramids, the Roman aqueducts, the Gothic cathedrals. Its innovations—the
railroad, the steamship, the telegraph—had unleashed fantastic productive forces. In the name
of free trade, it had knocked down national boundaries, lowered prices, made the planet
interdependent and cosmopolitan. Goods and ideas now circulated everywhere. Marxism is
not as alive today as it was during the two preceding centuries. But even now ideas of Karl
Marx continue to engage intellect, imagination and conscience of human minds across the
world from perspectives that are understandably very diverse.

2. Karl Marx is probably the most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the nineteenth
century and one of the founders of communism. Although dictatorships throughout the
twentieth century have distorted his original ideas, his work as a philosopher, social scientist,
historian and a revolutionary is respected by academics today. Marxism as the attempt to gain
historical understanding through the application of scientific methods later developed into
Marxism as a body of scientific truths, gaining a status more akin to that of a religion. The
New Left comprises thinkers and intellectual movements that emerged in the 1960s and early
1970s, seeking to revitalize socialist thought by developing a radical critique of advanced
industrial society. The New Left rejected both ‗old‘ left alternatives: Soviet-style state
socialism and deradicalized western social democracy. Influenced by the humanist writings of
the ‗young‘ Marx, and by anarchism and radical forms of phenomenology and existentialism,
New Left theories are often diffuse. Karl Marx was also a utopian thinker, but in a different
way from Plato or Bacon. Marx‘s predecessors began with elaborate descriptions of their
paradises; and when they engaged in social criticism, it was usually implicit. Marx, by
contrast, began with an explicit criticism of existing society and sketched only the broadest
outlines of his utopia. In fact, there would be just two types of people in the world: the people
who owned property and the people who sold their labour to them. As ideologies disappeared
which had once made inequality appear natural and ordained, it was inevitable that workers
everywhere would see the system for what it was, and would rise up and overthrow it. The
writer who made this prediction was, of course, Karl Marx, and the pamphlet was ―The
Communist Manifesto.‖ The harsh working conditions and widespread suffering associated
with capitalism in the mid-nineteenth century provoked Marx‘s attack on economic
inequality. The wealthy commercial and industrial elites—the bourgeois capitalist class—
opposed reforms aimed at improving the living conditions of the impoverished working
class—the proletariat. In Marxist political theory, the ideal society in which wealth is
equally distributed according to the Principle ―from each according to his ability, to
each according to his needs.‖ Marx believed economics, or the production and
distribution of material necessities, was the ultimate determinant of human life and
that human societies rose and fell according to the inexorable interplay of economic
forces. But the internal progressive logic of capitalism made it equally inevitable,
according to Marx, that the superstructures of power built on greed and exploitation
would collapse in a great social upheaval led by the impoverished and alienated
proletariat.

3. Marx referred to the first stage in the revolution that would overthrow capitalism as the
dictatorship of the proletariat. During this time, the guiding principle would be, ―From each

Influence of Karl Marx’s Political Thought in 20th Century

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 according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.‖ Private ownership of property
would be abolished. Marx German philosopher and his best-known titles are The Communist
Manifesto and Das Kapital. His political and philosophical thought had enormous influence
on subsequent intellectual, economic and political history. His work in economics laid the
basis for much of the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and
subsequent economic thought. Much of the world has been influenced by Marx's work, with
many modifying or adapting his ideas. Marx is typically cited as one of the principal
architects of modern social science.

4. The 1972 Nobel literature laureate, German writer Heinrich Boll, once said, without the
workers' movement, without the socialists, without their thinker Karl Marx, more than five-
sixths of those living today would still be living in a dull state of half-slavery. Marx made a
basic distinction between social form and material content ... In the early 19th century what
was changed was agriculture, in the late 19th century industrialization. Now it is
digitalization. All these have changed on the side of the material contents, but the social form,
to be a commodity, always remains the same. Today's world is faced with multiple
challenges, ranging from wars and conflicts, poverty, climate change to extremism and
terrorism. Countries across the globe have been seeking solutions to these challenges, at the
same time, enriching Marxism thought through experience and characteristics of Marxism."
one of the fundamental questions that need to be answered in the modern study of Marxism is
how to address the social imbalance in development and how to turn people's longing for a
better life into reality. If Marxism in the 21st century can achieve this, it will surely be
revived with enormous vitality. Marxism is a scientific theory that reveals the rule of human
society development in a creative manner. Having developed the materialist conception of
history and surplus value theory, Marx showed how humanity would leap from the realm of
necessity to the realm of freedom and the road for the people to realize freedom and liberation
and the unremitting fight to overturn the old world and establish a new one.

5. An influential person till today, whose thinking matches the modern day thinking. Every
theory about labour and capital he put up, has built a solid foundation for the future economic
theories. Modern social science is thanks to Karl Max. A leader in revolutionary thinking in
economic terms, with such definitions of Labour theory of value gaining a lot of attraction
from the world. The theory suggests that if goods and services tend to be sold at their true
objective labour values as measured in labour hours, how do capitalists enjoy profit? It is by
means of underpaying or making the worker work overtime to gain benefits from it. Therefore
exploitation of labour to drive down the cost of production was witnessed. Das
Capital another book written by Marx was a life changing book about capitalism. The theories
of commodities, labour markets, the division of labour and the understanding of return to
owners of capital. The current discussion of the theme of globalisation suffers from an
indeterminate characterisation of the process and that there is a need for a determinate
historical and theoretical specification of the global system. Such a specification must be
able to account for the particular intensity of modern globalisation as compared with the
more general interaction across space that has characterised much of world history. The
work of Marx and Marxism provide an indispensable point of departure for the study of
globalisation and modern global economy also. Marx‘s thoughts on economic globalization
are contained in his philosophical views, his ideas on historical materialism and his theory of
world history. His philosophical transformation broke with the idealist ontology of old
philosophy and made philosophical studies connect with reality. Marx‘s thoughts on
economic globalization mainly reveal the nature and trends of economic globalization; he
emphasizes that economic globalization is a result of the global expansion of capitalism.

Influence of Karl Marx’s Political Thought in 20th Century

3
Conclusion

It is remarkable for an economic thinker and political activist that 200 years after their birth, millions
are still avidly discussing their work. Yet Karl Marx‘s Capital continues to influence every new
generation. Marx‘s economic writings are at the centre of debate once again. And one of the figures
most associated with these discussions. In an era of anti-globalisation protests and
the movement against the 1%, Marx‘s analysis continues to be relevant – he explains how the
capitalist system goes hand in hand with aggressive competition and innovation, and why this leads to
poverty, crisis and eventually revolution. He brilliantly describes growing wealth, the worsening
conditions of labour and the necessity for a different society. These insights apply as much to the 21st
century as the 19th. We see the same capitalist landscape of old incumbents constantly under pressure
from new challengers – and also the same destructiveness. Marx therefore helps us make sense of
modern power relations after all. Then, as now, there is no contradiction between capitalism and
crisis: it is a process of historical development and economic transition within the system.

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Baran, Paul A.,Paul M. Sweezy. 1966. Monopoly Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Bleaney, Michael. 1976. Underconsumption Theories: A History and Critical Analysis. New York:
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Bowles, Samuel, David M. Gordon, and Thomas Weisskopf. 1984. Beyond the Waste Land: A
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Leo Strauss, J Cropsey, 1963. History of Political Philosophy, The University of Chicago Press,
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https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/karl-marx-yesterday-and-today

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