Marx And Weber Essay Research Paper Erik

Marx And Weber Essay, Research Paper

Erik NicholsonMarx and Weber essayComparative Politics Max Weber’s book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is basically a counter argument to Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels s publication The Communist Manifesto. Both books deal with the progression and rise of capitalism, yet the authors discuss very different paths to explain how we achieved capitalism as it is today. Marx’s view of the history of capitalism is very focused on economics and class structure and was based on the premise that capitalism is embedded with the seeds for its own demise and is but one stage in an ever evolving path to socialism. Weber felt that religion and culture defined the rise of capitalism; specifically that Protestant ethics and ideals were instrumental to the development of modern capitalism. Weber believed there is no evolution beyond capitalism, such as Marx did. Both their views on the rise and dynamics of capitalism contain some similarities such as their pessimism towards what capitalism is doing to society and labor, yet it is the above differences on some of the most key elements regarding capitalism that set them apart. Both their similarities and differences are to be discussed. Marx had seen history as consisting of both the dialectic and materialism. This meant he saw history as conflict over the distribution of materials. He called this “Dialectic Materialism.” Marx’s dialectic was not based on the conflict of ideas, but rather on the dialectic of classes. This conflict results in a society s new mode of production. Each era of history consists of a mode of production. Throughout history, these modes changed through the dialectic. The dialectic would lead to a new mode of production and a new era in history. According to Marx, history would consist of epochs of modes of production. Marx states that the path of epochs from past to future go in a series from hunters and gatherers to slave society to feudalism to mercantilism to capitalism, and then finally society would reach a utopian state of socialism and communism. Marx believed that when studying the rise of capitalism one must be concerned with all the epochs of these past societies. Through the series of complicated class conflicts capitalism slowly emerged and with it so did new class distinctions. Marx defined these new classes as the proletariat who was a laborer, and the bourgeoisie who was the boss. Marx argued that in society production consists of two subclasses. If there is a slave society, there must be slave owners as well as slaves. (Marx pg. 9-10) Capitalism consists of those who own the means of production and those who are the means of production. (Marx pg. 13-15) Basically he meant the proletariat was the means of production and the bourgeoisie owned the means of production. Marx argued that in the formation of the capitalist society there are two prerequisites for the rise of capitalism. There first has to be the acquisition of enough money in the possession of certain individuals. As feudal society diminished and capitalism rose labor was taken from people and industrialized. Skilled labor was broken down into simpler tasks such that any individual could accomplish the tasks. Thus, skilled labor was devalued and unskilled labor rose to the dominant position. (Marx pg. 15-16) In the view of Marx the capitalist makes his money by the surplus of workers. According to Marx, any labor time over what is needed for constant capital is considered surplus. If it takes only a certain amount of hours a day for constant capital then all hours after that would be capital that the capitalist makes for free. This surplus capital may be free for the capitalist, but it causes a contradiction. For the capitalist the best way to sell a commodity is by having the lowest prices. The only way to have the lowest prices is by keeping the cost of production down. The only cost of production that the capitalist has control over is the cost of labor. So, in order to lower prices the capitalist must lower the wages of the workers. This causes one of the contradictions that Marx saw would crush capitalism from the inside. The laborers are also the consumers. If the laborers do not have the wages to buy a product then the company can not sell a product. This means that there is an overproduction and an under consumption of goods. When this happens the capitalist must lay off the laborer because he is not making the necessary constant capital. (Marx pg. 21) The other problem Marx saw with capitalism is that it “alienates” the workers from their jobs. He states when referring to the proletariat laborer He becomes and appendage to the machine, and it only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. (Marx pg.16) The work becomes highly impersonal. In feudal times the laborer was able to see what the end product was and able to sell it for themselves. Under capitalism the laborer is not able to do this. They are forced to produce a product for someone else. The laborers feel alienated from their jobs. The laborers do not take pride in the work they have done. This will then lead to the laborer not producing quality products. The laborer is not dependent on the quality of the goods to sell the product because they are paid an hourly wage. This will lead to an unmotivated worker and low quality products.

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