Characteristics of Marxism - Summary

Marxism is about a political-philosophical doctrine developed by Karl MarxHence Marxism, one of the great philosophers and economists of 19th century Germany who, together with Friedrich Engels, were the ones who developed the ideology of this theory. The main idea of ​​this new ideology was based on how the economy evolved over time recriminating commerce for being the main cause of exploitation of workers, by the class capitalist.

Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER, we offer you as a summary what are the main characteristics of Marxism in order, in some way, to be able to differentiate it from other ideologies such as communism or socialism, often confused between them.

Marxism is a theory that defends that the succession of historical events over time, that is, wars, discoveries of new territories, changes of governments... are caused by factors economic. Starting from this base, let's see what are some of the principles of this ideology.

Exploitation of the working classes

We all know that work is the only method of getting wealth, but within the context of capitalism, the worker, who is the one who at the end of the day generates that wealth he will receive a lower salary than what he produces, is what is known as capital gainThat is to say, that difference will be what the capitalist keeps, since it is the only way for him to also accumulate his capital. Therefore, in Marxist theory what I know defends is that this accumulation of capital is the result of exploiting workers.

Social classes in capitalist society

In the previous section we already clarified which would be the two social classes into which this capitalist society was divided:

• Working class or proletariat; they were the ones who sold their labor, but they owned the media that they themselves produced, yes, they were the true creators of wealth in society.
• Capitalist class or bourgeoisie; they were the owners of the means of production and those in charge of employing the working class in exchange for a salary. Within this group, we find, on the one hand, the Gentry, which were those who did not need to work because they lived on the surplus value extracted from the working class. And on the other hand with the petty bourgeoisieThat, although if he worked, they were still the owners of the means of production.

The class struggle is an invariable factor that has always occurred in the history of humanity, and when the development of capitalism took place, it was not going to be less, so that the struggle between capitalists and proletarians was constant, since the working class never saw a way for them to reach positions of can.

In this other lesson we will discover a short biography of Karl Marx.

From the economic point of view, Marxism as a political theory proposed the state participation in this sector to, thereby, be able centralize administration factors of production and regulate prices. Over time, the objective of the capitalist class became ever greater and was none other than to obtain more benefits than they already received. For this, what they did was to replace these workers with machines, this being the new method by which they would save themselves from paying wages by making a greater profit.

From the political point of view, he also proposes to give the State the charge of satisfying the needs of the working classes. eliminating, therefore, the ruling class and appointing another administration to take charge of the class structure of the condition. In this way the main problem of ideology, the class struggle, would come to an end and the building a new ideal society.

From the religious point of view, Marxism understood religion as a way of expressing the needs of a people who, for the most part, were exploited and oppressed. Marx, who carried out a deep critical analysis on religion, understood that religion was taken by society as a peaceful way of seeing things.

Here you will find a summary of the Communist Manifestowritten by Karl Marx and Engels.