Social Structure and Capitalism

Aug 28, 2007-08-28

Capitalist economy focuses on mode of production.

Key concept to learn: labour, values of commodity, class structure, class struggles, revolution.

Capitalist economy is analysed as a system of commodity production which is based upon wage labour.

In commodity production, labour involved can be seen as;

Concrete labour: particular skills or practices necessary to products specific things.

Abstract labour: expenditure of human labour power in general in the production of commodity. For example, labour is commodified and sold to capitalist for his use for a specific period of time, and worker get paid for a wage.

Labour power is the capacity to work which is brought and employed by capitalist and from which surplus value is extracted.

In capitalism, worker agrees to submit to the employer’s authority for a fixed period of time, employer has freedom to use the labour power and the surplus product created as he wishes.

Production of commodities

Use value-
-its production is a natural human expression
- An object can have use value regardless whether it is also a commodity;
-produced to satisfy one’s needs.

Exchange value:

• The ratio at which a commodity exchange against others
• Exchange mediated by money
• Inseparable from the market

(Fetishism of Commodities)

Commodity is a product which possesses exchange value, which is determined by the market, it conceals the value of labour power which is embodied in the object.

Surplus value: The difference between the exchange value and the cost of production of a commodity, appropriated by capitalist as profits. It can be using for pay for rent, interest of bank, etc, or for capitalist own use and consumption, or reinvest to make more surplus value.

Exploitation of labour
In order to increase productivity of labour relative to constant capital, the capitalist will:-
o Increasing working hours: raise rate of surplus value
o Decrease wages below their value
o Increase use of machinery.

“The greater division of labour enables one worker to do the work of five, ten or twenty, it therefore multiply….” (Wage labour and capital)

Product is alienated from worker, the producer.

Alienation : is the consequence of capitalism on the working class due to division of labour, refers to man loses to someone or something certain aspects which are essential to his nature, specifically, loss of control over own activities and initiator of the historical process.

There are four aspects of alienation:

1. Alienation from the product.
The process of labour and production is the realization of labour, an objectification. This alienation makes worker lost its own labour reality.
“Fetishism of commodity
Fetish is a material object attributed with super-nature power.
Fetishism of commodity is not referring to the fixing of desires upon commodity, but fetish character of the commodity as a special kind of object, commodity is not only as a physical entity but also as a monetary value.

However, the value of commodity is determined by market demand and supply, therefore, the labour’s contribution is concealed and overlooked.

Under Fetishism of commodities society, social relationships between workers from different line are concealed and disgusted. The value of labour is also concealed.

2. Alienation from productive activity.

When the worker sells his labour power to a capitalist for wages in a specific timeframe, he does not have freedom to exercise his own will in production and other conscious activities.

3. Alienation from species being the human nature

Species being requires human being to interact in his productive life; free conscious activity is one of men’s characteristics. This alienation turns workers productive life into a mere means of sustaining the worker’s individual existing and of his fellow men.

4. Alienation from nature, subjugation and exploitation.

In olden days, under a less rationally system, God was a power over man with absolute power and authority; now as more ‘rational’ system, working class were under a small group of capitalists’ power.

Class, in Marx’s theoretical framework, often is used in two ways:-

1. Relationship to prevailing mode of production
2. A group’s consciousness of itself as a class with its own political organization.

Classes emerge when division of labour allows for the accumulation of surplus production that can be appropriated by a minority grouping. This small group stands in an exploitative relationship with the majority who are the producers.

In capitalism society, there are three main classes: capitalist, proletariat, landowners.

Some argued that there is also an intermediate /transitional class, e.g. petit bourgeoisie, these classes; however, will slowly dissolving into two polarized classes of Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. Class objective face (looking from outsider) and Class consciousness (looking from inside, recognition themselves as one of classes), that lead class struggles.

“Class struggle is the active expression of class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, leading ideologists of communism, wrote "The [written][1] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"[2].
Marx's notion of class has nothing to do with hereditary caste, nor is it exactly social class in the sociological sense of upper, middle and lower classes (which are often defined in terms of quantitative income or wealth). Instead, in an age of capitalism, Marx describes an economic class. Membership of a class is defined by one's relationship to the means of production, i.e., one's position in the social structure that characterizes capitalism. Marx talks mainly about two classes that include the vast majority of the population, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Other classes such as the petty bourgeoisie share characteristics of both of these main classes. ”*1

Main Contributions of Marx:

o Show classes linked to particular epochs in the development of productions
o Class struggles would lead to dictatorship of the proletariat and a classless society
o The engine of social change is class struggle

“The "dictatorship of the proletariat" is a term employed by Marxists that refers to a temporary state between the capitalist society and the classless and stateless communist society; during this transition period, "the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat". The term does not refer to a concentration of power by a dictator, but to a situation where the proletariat (working class) would hold power and replace the current political system controlled by the bourgeoisie (propertied class).”*2

*1 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_struggle
*2 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat