Class consciousness is increased, common interests and policies are organized, and the use of and struggle for political power occurs. Increasingly class conflict is manifested at the societal level. Eventually, given the maturing of capitalism, the growingĭisparity between life conditions of bourgeoisie and proletariat, and the increasing homogenization within each class, individual struggles become generalized to coalitions across factories. Finally the relation of production, the natural opposition between proletariat and bourgeoisie, determines all other activities.Īs Marx saw the development of class conflict, the struggle between classes was initially confined to individual factories. But as society matures, capital (i.e., the property of production) and land ownership merge, as do the interests of landowners and bourgeoisie. From this common interest classes are formed, and for Marx, individuals form classes to the extent that their interests engage them in a struggle with the opposite class.Īt first, the interests associated with land ownership and rent are different from those of the bourgeoisie. They develop a mutual dependence, a community, a shared interest interrelated with a common income of profit or of wages. Out of similar class situations, individuals come to act similarly. The force transforming latent class membership into a struggle of classes is class interest. Class is therefore a theoretical and formal relationship among individuals. The social conditions of bourgeoisie production are defined by bourgeois property. These are determined by distribution and consumption, which itself ultimately reflects the production and power relations of classes. In relation to property there are three great classes of society: the bourgeoisie (who own the means of production such as machinery and factory buildings, and whose source of income is profit), landowners (whose income is rent), and the proletariat (who own their labor and sell it for a wage).Ĭlass thus is determined by property, not by income or status. Such ownership vests a person with the power to exclude others from the property and to use it for personal purposes. 1 A class is defined by the ownership of property. The key to understanding Marx is his class definition. His was a conflict view of modem (nineteenth century) society. The structure itself was a derivative of and ingredient in the struggle of classes. Conflict was not deviational within society's structure, nor were classes functional elements maintaining the system. His was no equilibrium or consensus theory. Them as the engine of change in this structure. It is important to recognize that Marx viewed the structure of society in relation to its major classes, and the struggle between In outlining this view of social conflict and relating it to the conflict helix, I try to show that the conflict helix agrees with Ralf Dahrendorf's "revisions" of Marx and generalizes Dahrendorf's own theory to all societies. It is powerful in providing in one package a description, an explanation, and a prediction of contemporary problems, and a remedy. This notion is powerful in being dynamic, intuitively persuasive, and appearing to fit well with history. One of the most powerful sociological explanations of social conflict is that of Karl Marx, who posited a class struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie intrinsic to capitalist, industrial society. This being the case we cannot, in sociology as in peace research, direct our attention exclusively to what "is"-we must at least be equally concerned with that which "could be." A situation characterized by the absence of manifest social conflict may contain important latent conflicts of interest the latter may have a relatively great potential to serve as the focus of crystallization of manifest conflicts. This much, at least, we should have learnt from Hegel and Marx: we can only make a contribution to the understanding of consensus, conflict and power by approaching our subject matter critically. Opposition, Determinism, Inevitability, and ConflictĬONFLICT IN PERSPECTIVE Chapter 5 Marxism, Class Conflict, Conflict as a Process and the Conflict Helixĩ. Cross-Pressures, Overpopulation, Anomie, and ConflictĨ. Same and Other Similarity and Differenceħ. Misperception, Cognitive Dissonance, Righteousness, and ConflictĦ. Frustration, Deprivation, Aggression, and the Conflict HelixĤ.
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