The Manifesto of the Communist Party

1361 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: social order and its challenges

The Manifesto of the Communist Party

Drafted in 1848 by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” outlines the views, tendencies, and aims of the communist party through the so-called philosophy of historical materialism (Distante). These views were expressed throughout four distinct sections of the “Manifesto of the Communist Party.” The first section describes the relationship between the bourgeois and the proletarians. The next section depicts the relationship between the proletarians and the communists. The third section of the document presents socialist and communist literature. The “Manifesto…” is ended with a section stating the position of the communists in relation to opposition parties.

The first section begins with a brief history of the bourgeois in various societies. Marx shows that like earlier civilizations, the bourgeois, or modern capitalists and employers, has oppressed the proletarian class, or the working class of the society. Comparisons are made regarding ancient Rome as well as the middle ages with the modern bourgeois. Marx claims that the “modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society [….] It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression (Marx).”

During the feudal period, the feudal lords monopolized industry. As time progressed, this system was insufficient for the growing needs of the nation. A new manufacturing system took the place of the monopoly system and soon provided for the natural evolution of the capitalist class. Due to increased work and efficiency, the markets continued to grow to the point that even the manufacturing system was not sufficient. Industrial revol...

... middle of paper ...

...tionary movement against the existing social and political order of things. In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question…Working men of all countries unite! (Marx)”

Works Cited

1. Brians, Paul. Communist Manifesto Study Questions.

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/manifesto.html (19 Oct. 2001).

2. Distante, Patrick. Evolutionary Philosophy---the Late 19th Century.

http://home.earthlink.net/~pdistan/howp_9.html (19 Oct. 2001)

3. Kuhn, Rick. The Communist Manifesto.

http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html (19 Oct. 2001).

4. Marx, Karl and Engels, Freidrich. The Manifesto of the Communist Party. (New York:

Monthly Review Press, 1964)

5. Marxism Made Simple. http://www.marxism-made-simple.fsnet.co.uk/mainpage.htm (19

Oct 2001).

Show More
Related

  • The Struggle Between The Working Class And Communism In The Communist Manifesto?

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the two German philosophers saw history as the struggle between the working class and the Bourgeois, or middle class (textbook 708). The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848, during the peak of the Industrial Revolution, a time when the Bourgeois made huge profits in manufacturing at the expense of the working class. According to Marx and Engels, the fruits of the Industrial Revolution created a new class of the oppressed modern working class, the Proletariat, which had never before existed because it was neither like serfdom or slave hood in that it was dependent on the Bourgeois to hire them for wage labor. This was the class the two philosophers envisioned would set off a revolution that would overthrow capitalism to end the perpetual class struggle and create a fair society known as Communism.

    Read More

  • The Individual and Society in the Communist Manifesto

    1781 Words  | 4 Pages

    The end of 19th century, Western Society was changing physically, philosophically, economically, and politically. It was an influential and critical time in that the Industrial Revolution created a new class. Many contemporary observers realized the dramatic changes in society. Among these were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who observed the conditions of the working man, or the proletariat, and saw a change in how goods and wealth were distributed. In their Communist Manifesto, they described their observations of the inequalities between the emerging wealthy middle class and the proletariat as well as the condition of the proletariat. They argued that the proletariat was at the mercy of the new emerging middle class, or bourgeoisie, and could only be rescued by Communism: a new economic form.

    Read More

  • Capitalism In The Communist Manifesto

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848, a period of political turmoil in Europe. Its meaning in today’s capitalistic world is a very controversial issue. Some people, such as the American government, consider socialism taboo and thus disregard the manifesto. They believe that capitalism, and the world itself, has changed greatly from the one Marx was describing in the Manifesto and, therefore, that Marx’s ideas cannot be used to comprehend today’s economy. Others find that the Manifesto highlights issues that are still problematic today. Marx’s predicative notions in the Communist Manifesto are the key to understanding modern day capitalism.

    Read More

  • The Communist Manifesto Essay

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    From the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century major historical events such as the Industrial revolution had occurred. During this period of time Europe was switching into an economy that is focused mostly in the industrial field. From this emerged two social-economic classes, the rich bourgeoisie and the poor proletariats. Furthermore tension brewed from the two groups since the bourgeoisie source of wealth was from the exploitation of the proletariats. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ book The Communist Manifesto responded to the situation and created a vision of an equal communist society. The Communist Manifesto was defined by the abolishment of the bourgeois sovereign rule that followed to a revolution against capitalism

    Read More

  • The Communist Manifesto

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    Karl Marx is living in a world he is not happy with, and seems to think that he has the perfect solution. I am a strong believer in his ideas. We are living in a time period with a huge class struggle. The Bourgroise exploits and the proletariat are being exploited. Marx did not like the way this society was and searched for a solution. Marx looked for “universal laws of human behavior that would explain and predict the future course of events" (36). He saw an unavoidable growth and change in society, coming not from the difference in opinions, but in the huge difference of opposing classes. He speaks of his ideal society and how he is going to bring about this utopia in his book The Communist Manifesto. I am going to share with you more on his ideas of this “world-wide revolution” (36) that would put an end to social classes and allow people to live with equal sharing which would result in a harmonious and much peaceful world.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Communist Manifesto

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels from “Communist League”, a radical workers group, was authorized to produce The Communist Manifesto on behalf of the group. Marx was the author of The Communist Manifesto with Engels as the assistant and editor. The Communist Manifesto was published on February 21, 1848. In the document Marx and Engels argue that struggles between classes and the exploitation between one classes of another, is the force behind historic development, “all history has been a history of class struggles, of struggles between exploited and exploiting, between dominated and dominating classes at various stages of social development,” (Karl Marx). In addition, Marx and Engel’s The Communist Manifesto was greatly influential in the labor movement of the late nineteenth century.

    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

  • The Ideology of Karl Marx on Sociology

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    The bourgeoisie “has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society” (Marx and Engels, 1848). The bourgeoisie or capitalists are those who purchase and often exploit labour power in order to maximise their surplus value. The b...

    Read More

  • Communist Manifesto Analysis

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto explores class struggles and their resulting revolutions. They first present their theory of class struggle by explaining that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx 14), meaning that history is a repeated class struggle that only ends with a revolution. Marx and Engels’ message in The Communist Manifesto is that it is inevitable for class struggles to result in revolutions, ultimately these revolutions will result in society’s transition to communism.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Communist Manifesto

    2947 Words  | 6 Pages

    Karl Marx (1818-1883) was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of modern times. Although it was only until after his death when his doctrine became world know and was titled Marxism. Marx is best known for his publication, The Communist Manifesto that he wrote with Engels; it became a very influential for future ideologies. A German political philosopher and revolutionary, Karl Marx was widely known for his radical concepts of society. This paper give an analysis of “The Manifesto” which is a series of writings to advocate Marx ‘s theory of struggles between classes. I will be writing on The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, which lays down his theories on socialism and Communism.

    Read More

  • Karl Marx And The Communist Manifesto

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    Born from the revolutions of 1848 throughout Europe, Marxism sought to end the class struggles that were destroying the continent. The solution to the problems of all nations occurred to Marx to be Socialism, a branch that is presently known as Marxism. Under this seemingly “utopian” socioeconomic system, equality was granted to all citizens who were in essence a community of one. “. . . universal free education; arming of the people; a progressive income tax; limitations upon inheritance; state ownership of banks. . .”(Palmer 506). These rights of which constituted Marxism eventually went on to be incorporated in Leninism and modern-day socialism. At least in its beginning, the intent of Marxism and the Communist League were noble towards the goal o...

    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

  • Marxism as Found in London, by William Blake

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1848, Karl Marx became renowned for his work, The Communist Manifesto, which was considered one “of the most eloquent and undoubtedly the most influential political pamphlet ever published…” (Waugh 140). Marxism, as it later became known as, explored “the intellectual rationale of the numerous Communist and Socialist parties” (Waugh 140). The foundation of Marxist views relied on that of class struggle: “Marxist criticism must always insist upon the issue of class relations, and class struggle, in unlikely contexts no less than likely ones” (Waugh 143). Works dealing with Marxism must, then, show the difference in classes, and the struggle and plight that the lower class faces at the hand of the upper class. It was also the Marxist belief that in order to exact social change, the masses would need to come together and cause a social upheaval.

    Read More

  • The Effect of the Industrial Revolution on the Wider World

    2008 Words  | 5 Pages

    The aims of this paper are to evaluate the effects the Industrial Revolution had on the wider world. This essay will be assessing the impact of technology and innovation on employment of the era, and how the factory system gave rise to socialism. In addition, it will be evaluating how the Industrial Revolution was the precursor to the phenomenon of consumerism and the resulting globalization.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of The Communist Manifesto

    1432 Words  | 3 Pages

    The second section of The Communist Manifesto is the section in which Karl Marx attempts to offer rebuttals to popular criticisms of his theory of governance. These explanations are based upon the supposition that capitalists cannot make informed observations upon communism as they are unable to look past their capitalist upbringing and that capitalists only seek to exploit others. Though the logic behind these suppositions are flawed, Marx does make some valid points concerning the uprising of the proletariat.

    Read More

More about The Manifesto of the Communist Party

Open Document