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Unit 4: Theories of Social Stratification-II

emphasized on the question of the links and interdependence between the state and the material Notes
conditions of the life of society.
Marx spent time with the destitute masses of France, particularly in Paris, and he became interested
in the study of English and French masses. Such an experience and understanding resulted into
his transition from idealism to materialism and from revolutionary wave to communism.
German, English and French experiences prompted Marx to think of “civil society” in the context
of political economy. He then rejected Hegelian dialectics (dialectics of human mind), and undertook
a critical revision. In a non-mechanistic form, he adopted Feuerbach’s materialism, and with the
mix of ideology and materialism, developed an understanding of history, social relations and
politics. Marx preferred to call his theory “scientific socialism”.
Concepts of Class and Class Struggle

Marx has articulated his views in his writings such as the Communist Manifesto, three volumes of
Capital, German Ideology, etc. In volume III of Capital, Marx writes : “The owners merely of labour
power, owners of capital and landowners, whose respective sources of income are wages, profit
and ground-rent, in other words, wage labourers, capitalists and landowners constitute the three
big classes of modern society based on the capitalist mode of production”. This is how Marx
describes the proletariat and the bourgeois as two major classes, the first one as the have-nots and
the second one as the haves. Marx further observes in support of his two classes theory that
middle and intermediate strata obliterate lines of demarcation everywhere. The tendency is toward
more and more in the development of the capitalist mode of production, transforming labour into.
wage labour and the means of production into capital. Landed property tends to transform into the
capitalist mode of production as well. Now, the questions are :
1. What constitutes a class ?
2. What makes wage labourers, capitalists, and landlords to constitute the three great social
classes ?
In fact, Marx refers to only two classes – proletariat and bourgeoisie. The second and the third
classes, as mentioned earlier, ultimately merge and become one and the same class. However, no
coherent conception of the theory of class is found in Marx. He emphasized more on empirical
referents of his general formulation of class and class struggle. The main features of the Marxian
theory of class and stratification are as follows :
1. Economic interests are the basis for all other types of relationships – social cultural, political,
etc.
2. There are two classes : (a) owners of the means of production (bourgeoisie), and (b) workers
(proletariat).
3. The interest of these two classes clash with each other, as the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat,
and therefore, there exists a class struggle.
4. The bourgeoisie get more than their due share, which Marx names as the “theory of surplus
value”. Such a situation accelerates class struggle, which finally leads to revolution and radical
transformation of the stratification system of society.
In this way, in the Marxian theory, classes are basic features of social organization. Classes emanate
from the processes of the system of production. The bourgeoisie own the means of production,
and the proletariat provide the necessary human labour and related services. As such, the basis of
the stratification system is economic relations, and from this system, two classes are formed – the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat or the haves and the have-nots.
Class as a real group has a developed sense and consciousness of its existence, its position and
goals. Through the lens of class, one can see the totality of relations in society.

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