Lecture notes SOCL1014 (Semester 1, Block 2) - Karl Marx and Max Weber

Reference:

Dickinson, D. (2020). Module 3 Part 3: Max Weber’s Theory of Social Action [PowerPoint slides].
University of the Witwatersrand. Ulwazi: http://ulwazi.wits.ac.za

Module 1 – 1.4 21/04/21


KARL MARX’S THEORY OF
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
KARL MARX

• Born in 1818 – Atheist – friends with Friedrich Engels and wrote Communist Manifesto and
Capital with him.
• He could explain all of society and history with one core idea. We can understand all
societies through the analysis of class struggles and conflicts over material things. Example
of a grand theory
• History = society at different points in time

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM AND CLASS STRUGGLE

• Does this theory apply to African struggles.
• Amilcar Cabral agrees with Marx’s theory.
• What are Material Things? – physical things we want like houses, cars etc.

CLASS STRUGGLE AND CONFLICT

• An example of class struggle is a struggle between capitalists and workers. But there are
more.

MARX’S PERIODISATION OF HISTORY (THE MAIN FORM OF PRODUCTION)

• Primitive Communism
o Pre-history
o A very equal access to the means of production and material production
o Limited social hierarchies
o Communal
o Worked as a whole
o Land never really belonged to anyone
• Slavery
o the era where people were things
o who held the power
• Feudalism
o the owning of land
o Lords own the land, the serfs work the land
• Capitalism
o Capitalists (bourgeois) and workers (proletariat) – his current setting

, • Socialism leading to communism
o his attempt to predict the future
o The capitalist class will be eliminated, and the proletariat (everyone) will be in
power – no classes = utopia

WHAT IS CLASS (TO MARX)?

• People’s relative position and their relationship to the means of production.
• Slave: slave owner vs slave (labour = means of production)
• Feudal: The more land you own/control, the more power you have. Land vs Labour
• Capitalism: capital vs labour

ISN’T THIS A EUROCENTRIC THEORY?

• Yes
• South African POV
o Pre-colonialism - peasant production (some Feudal features)
o Colonial conquest leads to – Slave society – Capitalist production – peasant modes of
production
• However, we can apply it to different timelines in Europe and South Africa
• Primitive Accumulation – how do people get ownership or control of means of production
while the worker only has labour-power. How does the transition from feudalism to
capitalism happen? – They stole/ grabbed the resources.
• Example: Land Enclosures in England. Making land go from communal use to private use.
The peasants who worked on the communal land must now try to find a way to survive (‘free’
labour)

TAKING LAND IN SOUTH AFRICA

• Whites stole African land. They made useless and weird taxes (hut tax) on them so they
would be forced to work in white-owned mines and farms, creating ‘free’ labour.
• Natives Land Act of 1913

MARX’S BASE AND SUPERSTRUCTURE

• Emphasises the importance of the economy which is the base. It determines the shape and
function of other institutions such as law, the political system, and the superstructure.
o In the social production of our existence, men enter definite relations which are
independent of their will. (In the agency vs structure debate, Marx would be in
structure) = no matter what you do, you will be following structure. Namely relations
of production. They are determined.
o In Marxism, economic structure explains everything. The totality of these relations
of production constitutes the economic structure, the real foundation, on which
arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of
social consciousness. It’s not just institutions that are determined by the economic
system, it is also our thoughts, morality etc. as well.
• Base = foundation, means of production, relations of production, and things needed to
produce are somewhat different for every society. Shapes/determine the superstructure.
• Superstructure = walls, windows etc. Maintains the base. Culture, media, politics, faith etc.

, OVERDETERMINATION IS A DANGER WHEN WE EMBRACE ANY ONE THEORY

• Simplifying theories takes away its complexities.
• The government works and does what is good for the bourgeoisie.
• Overemphasis on an economic determination by the economic base can lead us to ignore
other important forms of social stratification: such as race and gender.



Module 2 – 2.3 01/05/2022


SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND
MARX’S CLASS THEORY
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

• Any study of society needs to determine what groups society is divided into. This division is
called social stratification.
• Depending on your group, you get preferential access and opportunities.

MARX’S UNDERSTANDING OF CLASS

• Class is determined by your relationship to the means of production. (Corresponds to his
materialist conception of history)
• This allows the class that controls the means of production to exploit the other.
• Under a system of capitalist production, the proletariat is exploited because the workers sell
their labour to the capitalist at a value less than the value the worker creates when working
for the capitalist. The capitalist can appropriate this surplus value.
• In capitalism, there can never be too much.
• Undermines humanity and human fulfilment.

MARX’S UTOPIAN VISION

• Marx saw the transition to socialism/ communism as a return to an ideal, classless, and
human-focused society. Makes people self-actualise through what they produce.
• A utopian vision with good substance.

AFRICAN UTOPIA

• With the freedom of countries like Ghana, Togo, Congo etc. during the 1960s, the ideas of an
African Utopia didn’t seem too far to reach. Until the bourgeois took advantage of the
proletariats diminished any of that potential success. The idea of achieving something never
before achieved.
• Materialism drives change.

MARX AND CAPITALISM

• Marx and Engels had a complex/ contradictory view of Capitalism