Chapter 1: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Bourgeois and Proletarians

Feudal Society

In Marxist Theory, the agrarian phase of history preceding the industrial phase, characterized by classing ranging from lords to serfs. The agrarian phase was preceded by ancient phase, characterized by classes ranging from patricians to slaves. The industrial phase magnified all these differences and simplified them into two antagonistic classes of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Ruling class

In Marxist theory, and oppressor class, notably the bourgeoisie. People today sometimes use the term to label any group with economic control over other groups. According to Marx and Engels, after the proletarian communist revolution, the ruling class would disappear, or the proletariat would become its own ruling class.

Means of Production

In Marxist theory, how people make a living in the material world. The earliest capitalist means of production were industrial, whereas the preceding means of production had been agrarian. Marx and Engels held that as the means of production evolve and independently, the relations of production evolve dependently.

Commodity

In Marxist theory, something bought and sold in capitalist exchange, including human labour. Competition among labourers in the "labour market" decreased wages and increased profit, exacerbating worker exploitation. Marx and Engels held that by becoming commodities, workers become alienated from themselves.

Capital

In Marxist theory, the accumulated wealth of the bourgeoisie, derived mainly from profit. According to Marx and Engels, capitalist profit is "theft" because it robs workers if the fruits of their own labor. Pierre Bourdieu uses the word to mean social capital, the body meanings, representations, and objects held to be prestigious or valuable to a social group.

Relations of production

In Marxist theory, the class-based social organization of how people make a living in the material world. As materialists, Marx and Engels held that as means of production change, the relations of production change to accommodate them. The capitalist relations of production comprise the antagonist classes of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Proletariat

In Marxist theory, the lower, or working, class oppressed by the bourgeoisie. The lowest layer of the working class, the lumpenproletariat, was sometimes "reactionary" and aligned itself with the bourgeoisie. The final sentence of the The Communist Manifesto (1848) is the famous call to the proletarian revolution, "Workers of the world unite."

Bourgeoisie

In Marxist theory, the middle, or capitalist, class, oppressor of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie owned the factories and other means of industrial production. As capitalist matured, the bourgeoisie splintered, and, by impoverishing the proletariat, helped to drive it to revolution.

Victory of the proletariat

In Marxist theory, when workers appropriate the bourgeois mean of production for themselves, ushering in socialism and ultimately communism. According to Marx and Engels, the process of dialectics, involving thesis/antithesis/synthesis makes the proletarian revolution inevitable. Invoking dialectics led them to call their theory if communism "scientific" rather than utopian.

modern industry

In marxist theory, the capitalist means of production. Marx and Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848) during the Industrial Revolution, when industry meant mainly manufacturing in factories. Today, capitalism is probably better known for its system of finance than of manufacturing.