Authors: Bogdanor
Summary: In approximately 1000 words, this entry defines Marxism, explains the origins and development of Karl Marx's thoughts, and describes the trajectory of Marxist theories after Marx's death.
According to the entry, Marxism is a "radical critique of capitalist society," which advocates a proletarian revolution leading ultimately to socialism. This doctrine was developed by Karl Marx, a man of German and Jewish background who spent most of his life exiled in England. Marx's thoughts originated as an internal critique of Hegel. Particularly troublesome for Marx was Hegel's claim that the state is somehow independent of economics in modern society. Marx, in contrast, viewed the state as 'nothing else than the executive committee of the ruling classes.' For Marx, modern society consists of the bourgeoisie--those who control the capital--and the proletariat--those who sell their labor for wages. Both the bourgeoisie and capitalism itself work to maintain wages at subsistence minimum, thus keeping the classes seperate and distinct.
Marx believed the key to overcoming these problems was worker organization both economically and politically. Marx thought the proletariat should take advantage of its overpowering numbers to transform society into a socialist one, with class differences eventually disappearing. Ultimately, the state would also wither away.
After he died, Marx's theories were both popularized and simplified, emphasizing some aspects and ignoring others. Marxism thus developed dominated European socialist parties prior to World War I. Electoral reforms de-revolutionized many previously radical parties, and by the second World War the split between revolutionaries and reformers was institutionalized in the Communist and social democratic parties. Stalin's totalitarianism further exacerbated this split. After World War II, many of Marx's earlier writings were incorporated into contemporary theories, thus reintroducing some of the humanistic aspects that had been lost or ignored.