Characteristics
Real world source of social change is the clash of social interests arising from social inequalities
What is historical materialism?
- our interactions with others in the real world shape our consciousness as well as society and history
- dialectical logic as the basis for social progress
- Need to understand modern society through an analysis of its mode of production and the changing forms of social divisions of labour.
Revolutionary Social Change/class struggle
The Communist Manifesto identified class struggle as the motor of history and predicted the end of capitalism through a revolution of the working class.
Mode of production
productive forces and social relations through which people organize themselves in order to produce in a particular way.
Base-Superstructure Model of Society
the base shapes the superstructure
- the superstructure maintains and legitimizes the base.
- the base is relations of production and means of production
- the superstructure is made up of education, politics, religion, mass media ect
Classes in society
Capitalist/Bourgeoisie: owns the means of production
Workers/Proletariats: sell their labour for power to survive; produce commodities.
Commodity
- a product produced for the purpose of exchange
- each has a value and exchange value which arise from the labour power that the workers invest to produce them
Rate of exploitation
worker produces a value for the capitalist in excess of the value paid to them in the form of wages.
What is the class struggle?
the outcome of the conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat. Contradiction inevitably leads to crises and destruction
pauperization of working class— growing concentration of capital in the hands of a few—alienation
Socialist Mode of Production
- power of the ruling class is never total, efforts t exert complete control fail.
- conflict propels the capitalist MoP to its revolutionary negation
what is law’s capitalist function?
law is used as a tool of social control
Criticisms
- only focuses on class oppression, ignores race, class and gener
- critique of prediction of communist revolution
- critique of deterministic account of law and society
- critique of communist social change.
