Marxist Historical Materialism and Social Change

Historical Materialism and Social Change

Historical Materialism:

Marx argues that the explanation of social change is not the will of men or their ideas, but the contradiction between the degree of development of productive forces in a given society and the social relations of production. The productive forces are all elements that contribute to production: the means of production and the workforce. Social relations of production are the organized relationships people form to produce goods; they are necessary for production to occur.

Productive Forces and Types of Social Relations

Marx, in his analysis of social relations, distinguishes between two broad types of relations: relations of cooperation and relations of exploitation. In communism there are no relations of exploitation; in capitalism the principal classes are the bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production) and the proletariat (those who sell their labor).

Social relations are the relationships between social positions; together these positions and relations give structure to society. It is the relations between positions that must change for fundamental social transformation to occur.

Social Structure and Superstructure

The social structure—the economic base, the organization of production, property relations, and laws—gives rise to a political and legal superstructure, which corresponds to various forms of consciousness. In Marxist terms, changes in the base (productive forces and relations of production) generate changes in the superstructure.

Contradiction and Social Revolution

Regarding social change and the dynamics of social processes, Marx argued that social revolution occurs when there is a contradiction between the development of productive forces and the structure of the relations of production. For a society to move from one social formation to another—i.e., for a social revolution to occur—the old society must contain the conditions that lead to its own exhaustion and the potential for the new formation to emerge.

Stages of Social Formation

Primitive communism existed in partnerships, but the development of productive forces leads to a restructuring of social relations of production, giving rise to private property. In this new era different stages appear:

• Master-slave stage: the owner has property rights over the worker and the means of production.
• Master-servant / Feudal stage: the servant or serf can use certain means of production, but real property belongs to the lord. The lord receives the surplus produced by the servant and, in return, allows use of resources and provides protection.
• Capitalist stage: corresponding to the bourgeoisie–proletariat relation. The proletarian is the owner only of his labor power; the capitalist owns the means of production. Formally, workers are free to sell their labor power, but must do so to survive.

Marx concluded that the buying and selling of labor under capitalism leads to exploitation: the development of productive forces comes into contradiction with the existing social relations of production, intensifying class struggle. Because the proletariat has no privileges to defend, it becomes the agent of change toward a new social formation.

From Revolution to Communism

For Marx, this process can culminate in a final stage: communism. He summarized the normative ideal of that stage with the well-known formulation:

"From each according to ability, to each according to need."