Similarites Between the Theories of Max Weber and Karl Marx

885 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of social stratification

Max Weber and Karl Marx have often been regarded as influential theorists who both analyzed in how the society is constructed in relationship to its economic conditions, more specifically on the division of labour. Both the labour and economics create a force on how societies are shaped and because of that Weber and Marx each developed a unique theory on how individuals react and how societies are formed. Many individuals say that, Marx and Weber both analyzed similar ideas however, they both had two very different perspective on it. The disparity between the two theorists was not about the idea that division does not exist, but rather how society acknowledged and reacted to the division. Max Weber’s theory is that capitalist system is perceived to be key not only to societal progression but individuals as well, whereas Karl Marx seen the division of labour of the start to all social conflict throughout history. This paper examines the agreement and disagreement of social stratification and inequality by both Weber and Marx.

Max Weber’s main purpose of the theory goes on to explaining that, Class, Status, Party are what make up the structure of our society. Weber lays out the idea that society falls under these three categories and these structures make up our society. Though Weber believes that capital has a large role in the distribution of power, he also includes how economic inequality shapes class as well. In order for Weber to determine class he used three of the following principles: “When (1) a number of people have in common a specific casual component of their life chances, in so far as (2) this component is represented exclusively by economic interests in the possession of goods and opportunities for income, and (3)...

... middle of paper ...

...r main focus was on social stratification and inequality, they did not merely agree with each other, even though Marx’s idea influenced Weber. Karl Marx focused on the economic concerns on how society is shaped, whereas Max Weber focuses on the political aspect. Marx goes on to explaining that society is made up of two class systems, the bourgeoisies which are perceived to be the capital class and the proletarian, the working class. He argues that the ruling class (bourgeoisie) exploit the working class (proletarians) for their labour, also emphasizes that social classes were defined by the modes of production. For this reason, Marx thought of the division of labour to being a negative impact on the society because it forced individuals to be categorized into either the ruling class or the working class based on their skills and alienated individuals as well.

Show More
Related

  • Similarities Between Karl Marx And Max Weber

    185 Words  | 1 Pages

    America is supposedly where all men are created equally, yet society has created a hierarchy based on socioeconomic standing and political power. Theorists Karl Marx and Max Weber has applied their theories of social class on the model of social stratification; a system in which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. According to Karl Marx, the main classes of society are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; those that are the owners of the means of productions and those who work for it. On the other hand, Max Weber argued that there is a multidimensional ranking rather than a hierarchy of clearly defined class. America has created a social system in which those of middle and lower classes tend to struggle to decrease the gap within

    Read More

  • Karl Marx’s Theory of the Capitalist Economic System

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    Karl Marx’s was a German philosopher, economist and evolutionary socialist born in Germany on May 5th 1818. His theories mostly consisted of the capitalist economic system. Marx’s attended the University of Bonn and University of Berlin. He is widely recognized for his theory of on the class system which included the concepts of base and super-structure. Marx’s theory of the class system is well exhibited by the documentary film, Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class.

    Read More

  • Social Stratification in 'Manifesto of the Communist Party' by Karl Marx and Max Weber's 'Class, Status and Party'

    478 Words  | 1 Pages

    Social Stratification in 'Manifesto of the Communist Party' by Karl Marx and Max Weber's 'Class, Status and Party'

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Class Status Party By Max Weber

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    This review can be seen in the example of someone who owns a small, local business not being seen as belonging to the same class as someone who owns a nationwide corporation, despite both people owning property. They are not seen as belonging to the same class because the large corporation makes a greater impact on society than the small, local business, and generates a larger income. Those who do not own property are differentiated in the same way by Weber, except this time he analyzes them based upon what kinds of services they offer and if they themselves participate in receiving services. In his final piece about class, Weber mentions class struggle. Class struggles are where people in the same class situation react, in large numbers, in ways that are an advantageous way to materialize and achieve their interests. Weber calls the factors that bring about class struggles, and determine class situations, markets. There are three types of markets that he mentions; the labor market, the commodities market, and the capitalistic market. The labor market is where people sell labor for money, the commodities

    Read More

  • Mead And Marx's View On Human Nature

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marx believes there is a true human nature, that of a free species being, but our social environment can alienate us from it. To describe this nature, he first describes the class conflict between the bourgeois and the proletariats. Coined by Marx, the bourgeois are “the exploiting and ruling class.”, and the proletariats are “the exploited and oppressed class” (Marx, 207). These two classes are separated because of the machine we call capitalism. Capitalism arises from private property, specialization of labor, wage labor, and inevitably causes competition.

    Read More

  • How Class Influences Identities

    393 Words  | 1 Pages

    Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) and Max Weber (1864 - 1920) both recognised that economic categories played a large part in social class structure. Nineteenth Century history plays an important part in understanding how class influenced identities. The Industrial revolution was changing the structure of the communities, the rich or landowners having a far better standard of living with better education, health care, property ownership and power than the poor. The working class would have a daily struggle to survive. The change in Trade Unions meant that the working class had a voice, helping to push their needs forward, looking for better standards of living and working conditions. Marx's concept of class was based around the production of goods. The emerging owners of these goods, or capital, were known as the ruling class. Marxism would define only two classes, the ruling class and the working class. The influence on identity of these two class structures would be very relevant in those days. The working class would earn a wage from the production of the goods but the ruling class would sell these for a profit and exploit the workers. The two classes were on two different levels of wealth, property ownership and social standing and they would struggle to mix, they were dependent on each other but the rewards would be unevenly matched.

    Read More

  • Cultural Anthro - Karl Marx

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Where some possess much, and the others nothing, there may arise an extreme- either out of the most rampant democracy, or out of an oligarchy.'; This was once said by Aristotle who was probably the first to recognize the importance of a middle class. A powerful debate whether the middle class is essentially defined by cultural or economic factors still remains an issue. A rich tradition is devoted to disentangling economic from cultural components of a class. According to Karl Marx, the middle class is an outgrowth of economic factors, primarily capitalism. Many people tend to disagree with Marx that capitalism is the only important factor in the outgrowth of the middle class. Judith R. Blau argues that her understanding of the middle class has much to do with inclusive cultural values. Blau demonstrates her opinion though her ethnography, Social Contract and Economic Markets. I believe that Karl Marx’s economic factors and Judith Blau’s cultural factors together define the middle class.

    Read More

  • Analyzing Views on Social Inequality: A Comparative Study

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social inequality is characterized by the existence of unequal opportunity for various social positions or statuses within a given group or society. It is a phenomenon that has a long history as social inequalities has a wide range of varieties. From economic, gender, racial, status, and prestige, social inequality is a topic often disputed by classical theorists. Sociologists Karl Marx, Max Weber, W.I. Thomas, and Frederic M. Thrasher have formed varying thoughts on this recurring phenomenon. Marx believed that social inequality synthesized through conflicts within classes and in modern society those two classes were the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In contrast, Weber disputes Marx’s simplistic view of the conflict and theorizes that social

    Read More

  • Karl Marx's Analysis Of Social Class

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marx’s analysis of social class is that there will always be a divide between the haves and the have not’s. He separates them into two classes the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie signifies the capitalist class, while proletariat signifies the working class. Max Weber’s defines class as “a group of people who have a similar level of economic resources”(p.244). He identifies two main elements of class, material resources, and skill knowledge in the marketplace. In contrast to Marx’s view on class Weber believed that class was not just based solely on ownership of means of production, but could also be based off ownership of other resources and the amount knowledge one has. Pierre Bourdieu’s view on class is that it is based on the concept of cultural capital meaning, “our tastes, knowledge, attitudes, language, and ways of thinking that we exchange in interaction with others”

    Read More

  • Karl Marx: Philosophy, Politics, and Class Conflict

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    Karl Marx was a German philosopher who studies at the university of berlin. He was a Hegelian. He was very active in the political scene, thus springing his desire to combined philosophy, political science and economics. Marx believes that we are the product of our environments but we also have the power to change our environment. He believed that human beings can shape the environment that we live in through our abilities. He also believes that philosophers should not only interoperate the world, but they should be able to change it (Citation). Marx believed that history is all based class conflicts. He uses the example of the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The bourgeoisie is the oppressive class, they consist of the rich, upper class,

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Karl Marx and Max Weber

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the nineteenth century, Karl Marx and Max Weber were two of the most influential sociologists. Both of them tried to explain social change taking place in society at that time. On the one hand, their views are very different, but on the other hand, they have many similarities. Weber had argued that Marx was too narrow in his views. He felt that Marx was only concerned with the economic issues and believed that that issue is a central force that changed the society.

    Read More

  • Differentiating Marx and Rousseau

    2202 Words  | 5 Pages

    In his Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx created a radical theory revolving not around the man made institution of government itself, but around the ever present guiding vice of man that is materialism and the economic classes that stemmed from it. By unfolding the relat...

    Read More

  • Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel: The Relationship between Society and the Individual

    3473 Words  | 7 Pages

    Karl Marx noted that society was highly stratified in that most of the individuals in society, those who worked the hardest, were also the ones who received the least from the benefits of their labor. In reaction to this observation, Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto where he described a new society, a more perfect society, a communist society. Marx envisioned a society, in which all property is held in common, that is a society in which one individual did not receive more than another, but in which all individuals shared in the benefits of collective labor (Marx #11, p. 262). In order to accomplish such a task Marx needed to find a relationship between the individual and society that accounted for social change. For Marx such relationship was from the historical mode of production, through the exploits of wage labor, and thus the individual’s relationship to the mode of production (Marx #11, p. 256).

    Read More

  • Karl Marx and Capitalism

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Karl Marx’s critique of political economy provides a scientific understanding of the history of capitalism. Through Marx’s critique, the history of society is revealed. Capitalism is not just an economic system in Marx’s analysis. It’s a “specific social form of labor” that is strongly related to society. Marx’s critique of capitalism provides us a deep understanding of the system to predict its pattern and protect ourselves from its negative sides.

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting Sociological Theorists Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx

    1584 Words  | 4 Pages

    Marx also focused on the alienation of individuals from society due to capitalism. He saw it as the people were separate from their labor. In older times, people had a trade that they were good at and it described them but after capitalism came into play then their labor just became a job and was no longer personal. Neither Durkheim nor Weber believed this to be so. This is also a difference between them. ( Ritzer, 2004) Marx also tended to go more into depth about the capital and co...

    Read More

More about Similarites Between the Theories of Max Weber and Karl Marx

Open Document