(To learn the details of Marx's theory of the labor relations of capitalism, see Capital, Volume 1.)įalse Consciousness and Class Consciousness Because wealth and power are unevenly distributed between these two classes, Marx and Engels argued that society is in a perpetual state of conflict, wherein the ruling class work to maintain the upper-hand over the majority working class, in order to retain their wealth, power, and overall advantage. This arrangement was the basis of the capitalist economy at the time that Marx and Engels wrote, and it remains the basis of it today. By charging far more for the goods produced than they paid the proletariats for their labor, the owners of the means of production earned profit. They argued that the 'bourgeoisie,' the minority in power, created class conflict by exploiting the labor power of the 'proletariat,' the workers who made the system of production run by selling their labor to the ruling class. Marx and Engels laid out this theory of class conflict in The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848. When looking at society this way, Marx saw that the distribution of power to determine how society functioned was structured in a top-down manner, and was tightly controlled by the wealthy minority who owned and controlled the means of production. Per his historical materialist account of history and how society functions, it is the base that determines the superstructure, whereby the superstructure is all other aspects of society, like our culture and ideology (world views, values, beliefs, knowledge, norms and expectations) social institutions like education, religion, and media the political system and even the identities we subscribe to. These include the means of production-factories and material resources-as well as the relations of production, or the relationships between people involved, and the distinct roles they play (like laborers, managers, and factory owners), as required by the system.

He defined the base as the material aspects of society: that which allow for production of goods. In The German Ideology, written with Friedrich Engels, Marx explained that society is divided into two realms: the base, and the superstructure.

Marx gave sociology some important conceptual tools as he developed his historical materialist theory and method for studying society.

Karl marx dialectic