Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

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Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of
Political Economy

• written in 1867, almost 20 years after the
  Communist Manifesto
• a more structural, deterministic view of social
  change
• there is always a creative tension between the
  voluntaristic and the deterministic sides of
  Marxs thought

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Key Terms relations of productionproductive
forcesmode of productionbase and
superstructurefettersideologycontradictionssoc
ial revolution
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The general conclusion at which I arrived and
which, once reached, became the guiding principle
of my studies can be summarised as follows. In
the social production of their existence, men
inevitably enter Into definite relations, which
are independent of their will, namely relations
of production appropriate to a given stage in the
development of their material forces of
production.  The totality of these relations of
production constitutes the economic structure of
society, the real foundation, on which arises a
legal and political superstructure and to which
correspond definite forms of social
consciousness.  The mode of production of
material life conditions the general process of
social, political and intellectual life.  It is
not the consciousness of men that determines
their existence, but their social existence that
determines their consciousness.
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Base and Superstructure
Superstructure
Art Religion Politics Law
Consciousness(Ideology)
Base
Relations of production
MaterialLife
Forces of Production
But note Marxs qualifications later in his life
(see Coser online reading on Soc. of knowledge)
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Ideology A Contemporary Example Watch these AIG
commercials on YouTube http//www.youtube.com/wat
ch?vXOKXQZ9ir3w http//www.youtube.com/watch?v9V
vGW98D3XA What kind of ideology are these ads
promoting? For an unintentionally ironic update
(the news since then is even worse),
see http//www.youtube.com/watch?v34795_mjcec
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• Marx and MicroCase Exercise
• How might religion (part of the superstructure)
  be related to the level of stratification (rooted
  in the base)?

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Discussion What did Marx mean by calling religion
the opium of the people? http//www.answers.com/
topic/opium-of-the-people
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    At a certain stage of development, the
material productive forces of society come into
conflict with the existing relations of
production or -- this merely expresses the same
thing in legal terms -- with the property
relations within the framework of which they have
operated hitherto.   From forms of development of
the productive forces these relations turn into
their fetters.  Then begins an era of social
revolution.  The changes in the economic
foundation lead sooner or later to the
transformation of the whole immense
superstructure.
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What drives social change is the changing
relationship between the relations of production
and the productive forces

• from facilitating the development of productive
  forces
• to becoming obstacles (fetters) to the
  development of productive forces

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Social revolution arises from the resulting
contradiction between the relations and forces of
production

• Social revolutions involve
• a change in the mode of production
• a change in the ruling class
• force--Force is the midwife of every society
  pregnant with a new one.
• Question from a Marxist point of view, when did
  revolution in America take place?

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Discussion How might the controversy over file
sharing be considered a contradiction between the
relations and forces of production in capitalist
society?
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Men make history but they do not make it just
as they please they do not make it under
circumstances chosen by themselves but under
circumstances ...given and transmitted from the
past.. Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of
Louis Bonaparte (1851)
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Marxs ideas about capitalism remain the basis of
many theories of globalization and resistance to
it