Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate the usefulness of Marxists approaches in understanding society (20) PDF

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Download Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate the usefulness of Marxists approaches in understanding society (20) PDF

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Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate the usefulness of Marxists approaches in understanding society (20) Item C Marxists see society as based on conflict between social classes. Those who own the means of production are able to exploit those who do not and are also able to impose their views on society. However, different Marxists have different views about the nature of capitalist society and about how social change occurs. Marxism is a useful theory in explaining things such as why the class system is the way it is and the inequality it causes to those who don’t benefit from it. One thing it helps us understand is why obedience exists in our society. Marx’s theory is seen as economically deterministic as he believed that society runs and functions based off of the economy. This dependency on the economy has therefore caused a ‘conflict between the social classes’ i.e. the proletariat (the exploited, working class) and the bourgeoisie (the exploiters and the owners of the means of production). Neither class can exist without the other i.e. the bourgeoisie need the proletariat to produce the products they sell and the proletariat need the bourgeoisie to pay them their wages so they can provide for their families. Hence, why, although they’re exploited, the proletariat can’t walk away from being exploited as they need the money. Postmodernists would argue that this theory is outdated and isn’t quite so applicable to today's contemporary society as social mobility exists i.e. being able to move up the social ladder. On the other hand though, the reason proletariat haven't quit their jobs may not be because they depend on the money that the job provides but, because they’re under a false consciousness where they don't even realize they’re being exploited by the bourgeoisie. Marxism helps us understand society through this theory as it explains how the bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat and this in turn fueled capitalism which allowed the rich to maintain their position in society and their wealth. An advantage of this part of the theory is it does apply to today’s society as it explains why so many low paid and harshly laboured workers choose to stay in such evidently exploited professions. However, Marxism can also be seen as not useful because it doesn’t explain why aspects of what the theory predicted have not occured yet. Marx said that class consciousness will occur where capitalism would go through a crisis period where exploitation would reach a threshold where the proletariat could no longer take being exploited anymore. Marx said that, consequently, a radical social change such as a revolution would occur and society would

enter a state of communism. This idea has been heavily criticised, by ‘different marxists’ because capitalism hasn’t entered a period of crisis. In fact it’s grown stronger and spread across the world due to globalisation. Furthermore, only 5 countries in the world are currently communist; North Korea, China, Vietnam, Cuba and Laos. It used to be 6 but Russia's communism ended in 1991. The different Marxists ‘views about the nature of capitalist society’ looks at how the upper class are a small minority and so they could easily team up with the middle class to push against the working class if a revolution ever occured. In conclusion Marxism has helped us understand how society works i.e. Marxism has aided our understanding of society as it recognises the importance of social structure and links this to ideas, consciousness and the behaviour behaviour of groups such as the working class and upper class. However, it has failed to explain individual behaviour and the reason behind it. Some aspects of the theory fail to accommodate to today’s society as the claims are either outdated or never occurred as predicted....