Political Theory of

Karl Marx
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Timeline of Karl
Marxs Life
Birth May 5, 1818-Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany to
a middle class Jewish family
 1835-Marx studied law at the University of Bonn
No date He transferred to University of Berlin
Student life April 1841 He received his Doctorate diploma from
the University of Jena
 No date Marx applied for a teaching post at the
University of Bonn but his efforts bore no fruit but he
never wanted to stay idle so he worked as a journalist
Career 1842 He published his first article in the popular
German periodical, Rheinische Zeitung
1843 Marx published two important works
A Critique of Hegels Philosophy of Right
On the Jewish Question
 October 1843 Marx moved to France where he did
further studies in philosophy, history, political science
and political economy; immersed himself in the works
of Adam Smith and David Ricardo
During his stay in Paris Marx got to meet Pierre
Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, and Friedrich
Engels; he also found himself getting the socialist
movement.
May 1844 He published his work on classical
economics and alienated labor entitled Economic and
Philosophic Manuscripts;
 1845 Marx moved to Brussels, Belgium where his
partnership with Engels grew. They collaborated on
several works such as The Holy Family and The
German Ideology.
1848- Marx and Engels wrote and published
Communist Manifesto which is considered as Marxs
most influential work.
1849 Marx moved to London where he did more
work on questions regarding political economy.
 1859 Marx published A Contribution to the Critique
of Political Economy
1867 Marx published the first volume of Das Kapital
1883 Marx died in London
Between 1885 and 1895 The second and third
volumes of Das Kapital, edited by Engels, were finally
published.
Influences to
Marxs Ideologies
 Is the most influential philosopher to Marx.
Marx never abandoned the basic categories of
Hegels thought despite his criticisms.

Georg W.F. Hegel is recognized as the originator of philosophical

idealism.
Hegel Marx was part of a movement called the Young
Hegelians.
Like Hegel, Marx believed that history has meaning
and moves in a set pattern toward a known goal.
 The first modern revolution because it changed the
structure of society rather than simply replacing the
existing ruler or even the political regime and created
new ideologies to explain its course when nothing
French suitable could be adopted from the past.

Revolutiona French revolution served as the best laboratory and

source of lessons because its experiences were
ry Politics mostly based on social antagonism.
He used this as a primary method to change a
capitalist society.
 In the Industrial Revolution, something had happened
which could not be stopped until it had worked
through every national economy in the world.
It all began in England and it is the country to live in if
one wants to study industrial capitalism first hand.
Industrial Marx is particularly interested in the widening gap
between the rich and the poor in the society.
Revolution This gap could be traced to the exploitative nature of
the economic system that the Industrial Revolution
brought forth.
He used this to support his argument that capitalism
is wasteful and exploitative.
The Communist
Manifesto
 Published on 1848 in London
The work is actually a declaration of principles and
objectives of the Communist League.
Final version was mostly done by Marx based on the
earlier draft by Engels.
The Manifesto is the most concise and intelligible
statement of Marxs materialist view of history.
Most widely read among his works and the single
most influential document in the socialist canon.
His works had very little effect on society while Marx
was still alive, his ideas gained ground after his death.
Marxs materialist
interpretation of
history
 The right approach to studying mans existence.
It is theoretical perspective which looks at human
problems by studying the real conditions of human
existence, especially those related to the satisfaction
of simple economic needs.
Materialism
 Marx pointed out that the social existence of man
determines his consciousness and not the other way
around.
It implies that mans consciousness are not accidental
and random, or freely left to their choice. Rather,
ideas are shaped by the structures and processes that
confront men in their everyday existence.
Key arguments that
led to the construction
of Marxs materialist
theory of history
 1.The act of producing the means to satisfy human
economic needs is the first and most important
historical act which are basic to mans existence.
2. Man is different from all other creatures because
he must produce his means of subsistence and
because he enters into a conscious relation with
nature for survival.
3. The manner in which men exist and live coincides
with what they produce and how they produce.
Important concepts
of materialism
 For Marx, it is anything in the external world that is
used to produce material needs and maintain
existence.

Means of The single most fundamental fact of materialist

theory of history is the condition of ownership over
Production the means of production.
It leads to the division of society into economic
classes.
Popularly known as capitalists and workers
 Link between how a society produces and the social
roles of individuals in the production process.
Relations of Formation of two distinct social roles in production:
Production producers and non-producers of physical labor is due
to the monopolizing of capitalists over the means of
production.
 Means by which people actually produce and enter
into social relationships.
Comprises a total way of life of the society, its social
institutions and activities.

Modes of It allowed Marx to identify the primary economic

elements of a historical period by showing how its
Production economic base directly shaped its system of social
relations.
The mode of production or the infrastructure serves
as the economic base which determines the totality of
the social superstructure- (composed of the state and
political institution, among others)
Materialist History
Evolution of the Modes of Production
 Ancient mode of production
Hunting and gathering system of tribal societies
The only division of labour was that between men and
women for the entirely natural biological reason that
women were burdened much of the time with young
Tribal children. They gathered vegetable foods while the
men hunted.
System All these tribal societies had features in common. The
hunting grounds were regarded as the common
property of the tribe.
No such institution as the state was necessary, for
there were no fundamental antagonistic class
interests tearing society apart.
 Basic system of trade and commerce
There is private property, from which arises relations
between owners and non-owners or citizens and
slaves.
Agrarian Division of labor is fairly extensive.
System Existence of forms of civil, political, and military
authority as well as a system of state ownership of
the means of production.
State refers to military elites who were responsible for
conquering new lands and people.
 An agricultural system of production
Food production concentrated in the aristocratic class
Absence of industry
Feudal Land ownership concentrated in the aristocratic class
System Landed property as the chief form of property
A network of political and social institutions that give
the landowners a means to exercise power over the
serfs.
 last form of the mode of production.
It follows the collapse of feudalism.
Serfs and peasants are transformed into wage
laborers or industrial workers as production shifts
away from countryside to the cities, from the farms to
the factories.

Capitalist Private property is ingrained in the system and a

division between capitalists and wage laborers is
System established.
The relationship between owners of the means of
production and the non-owners is that the former get
their wealth from the latter, who are the primary
producers.
Wage labor is the prevailing form of exploitation.
 A stage that commences when the economic
conditions inherent in the class system become so
great that the majority of workers from a class
constituting the potential for revolutionary change.
Also known as a transitional stage from capitalism to
Socialism communism.
Emphasizes collective ownership of the means of
production.
State playing a bigger role in the operation of the
economy.
 A certain stage of development in which the material
forces of production in society come in conflict with
the existing relations of production or with the
property relations within which they had been at work
Social before.
revolution It implies that if we want to change the system, what
we should attack is the economic base or the material
condition of our lives.
 Dictionary definition: is
a process of class
conflict and
revolutionary struggle,
resulting in victory for Marxs View: it is the
the working class and end of history.
Communis the establishment of
Equivalent to the final
m classes, socialist society
which private property synthesis that will no
has been abolished and longer be contested.
the means of
production and
subsistence belong to
the community.
 Is the most radical rupture with traditional property
Communist relations.
The Communist Manifesto stated the initial step in the
revolution communist revolution: to raise the proletariat to the
position of ruling class, to establish democracy.
 1. To seize the bourgeoisies capital
Marxs main 2. To put all means of production in the hands of the
tasks to the state

working 3. To increase the total of productive forces as fast as

possible
class
Critique of Capitalism
and Classical Political
Economy
 Marx commented that what will lead to collapse of
capitalism will be the very weakness and
contradictions that are inherent in this mode of
production.
A passage from his famous work titled The
Communist Manifesto:
The essential condition for the existence and for the
Marx s sway of the bourgeois class is the formation and
augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is
Critique on wage-labor. Wage-labor rests exclusively on
Capitalism competition between the laborers. The advance of
industry, whose involuntary promoter is the
bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the laborers,
due to competition, by their revolutionary
combinations, due to association. The development of
modern industry, therefore, customs from under its
feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie
produces the appropriate products.
 The modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a
long course of development, of a series of revolutions
in the modes of production and exchange. Which
Marx pointed out that bourgeoisie has had a highly
revolutionary role in history
Only the public ownership of the means of production
will bring into existence a new system of productive
relationships that will match the tremendous forces of
production actually or potentially existent and known
to man.
The collapse of capitalism: part to the reluctance of
the owners of the means of production to allow the
growth and development of the forces that make up
the new mode of production.
Marxs observation: History of all previous existing
society is the history of class struggles
 Disagreed with Smiths and Ricardos conception of
capitalist society
Criticized their tendency to conceive of the common
Marxs good of society
Critique on Criticized their work for being totally indifferent to the
economic inequalities
Political Rejected their claims that the value was a
Economics substance inherent in commodities
Criticized political economists for their theoretical
methods and use of abstract categories
 as some form of complex cooperation which occurs
Division of when the skills formerly embedded in the worker
Labor become functions of the process of the division of
labor itself (Morrison, 1995:86-87)
(1800s)
 extreme or extensive division of labor or highly
complex cooperation
a state of disruption and change taking place in the
Alienation system of social relations as a result of the
development of modern society
concept is related to the nature of man
 1. Alienation from product to labor
Four Basic 2. Alienation from product activity
Forms of 3. Alienation from human species
Alienation 4. Alienation from fellow human beings
 Karl Marx is a philosopher that is either loved or hated, no middle
ground.
Associated with communism (or socialism to be more precise).
Karl Marx was also into political economy, economics, philosophy,
sociology, law, history, and practically everything which he was
able to contribute ideas and arguments.
Political, economic, and social thoughts contributions: materialist
theory of history, critique of classical political economy, concepts
Summary of class struggle and alienation, and communism as the end of
history.
Materialist view of history: The existence of man is determined by
his material conditions.
In studying history: If one wants to change the system, one must
attack the mode of production.
In pursuit of communism the end of history one must attack
the capitalist mode of production and its weaknesses. Only then
can the communist mode of production be put in place.
 Argues that history is a history of class struggles
between two classes the oppressors and the
oppressed
In capitalist mode of production: two classes were the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat
Every class struggle is a political struggle
Bourgeoisie played the most revolutionary role
because whenever it has got the upper hand, [it] has
put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations
Bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly
revolutionizing the instruments of production, and
thereby the relations of production and with them the
whole relation of society