Soci Assignment 2

BSc Assignment 2
Due 1st week of January


Compare Marx’s and Weber’s accounts of the rise of modern capitalism.

Capitalism, according to Marx, is a system of commodity production that aims for maximizing profits. Weber, however, sees capitalism rationally, as a distinct way of organizing economic enterprises, which inevitably leads to the creation of bureaucracy, which is seen as the only way of organizing large number of people effectively, therefore expanding economy and political growth.

The rise of modern capitalism was seen to have developed in Northern Europe in the 19th century. Marx, the most vocal in speaking out against capitalism, saw the causes of it being deeply rooted in economic contradictions and class conflict. His theory was supported by evidence that in previous history, primitive communism was practiced, where means of production as well as the products of labour were shared communally amongst the members of the community.

However, with passing time, development of forces of production and technology influenced and gave rise to social class, which divided the people into two broad categories of being either the dominant class or the subordinate class. The dominant class, known as the bourgeoisies, is made up of capitalists who own the means of production; the subordinate class, known as the proletariats, is made up of ordinary people who make up the labour force that operates the means of production to churn out products.

As such, the two classes are seen to have a relationship dependant on one another. However, as Marx has pointed out in his zero-sum model of power, power is fixed and unexpandable, and in the attempt to get more power by one class would mean a loss for the other. The dominant, capitalist class would often exploit the subordinate class through ways such as paying lower wages and giving lesser benefits so as to pursue greater profits. The subordinate class has no choice but to reluctantly accept the terms quoted by the dominant class, as there would always be a reserve army of labour due to other workers being unemployed. Therefore, the relationship would be better described as antagonistic.

Marx believed that the result of being exposed to capitalism would cause people to be alienated as they are unable to make use of their creativity, practice cooperative work as conscious and sentient people. The immense pressure would then build up, and eventually, lead to a big revolution where the oppressed would rise up against the dominant class, create a utopia where people would live together in communes.

Weber, who borrowed on the ideas of Marx, and expanded them to create his own theory on the rise of capitalism. This has made him seem to be arguing with ‘the ghost of Marx’. However, he shared his predecessor’s idea that one contributing factor of capitalism was of economical reasons, but not the only reason.

Weber sees the rise of capitalism as being started in the West, with religion as an indirect contributing factor. In his book of “The Protestant Ethics and The Spirit of Capitalism”, he theorized that the Protestants, gained ground with the people, and people began to practice the fundamental beliefs. The basis of the Protestants was that they were to live their lives humbly and puritanically, eschewing of all material desires and frivolous spending. They were not ruled by a single Church, unlike the Catholics, who were seen to be more tolerant and forgiving of sins of extravagant lavishes.

Increasingly, the Protestants then created a work ethics of “work-and-save”. The people remained dedicated and instilled pride in their jobs, which resulted in increased productivity. Their higher productivity translated to economic terms, meant more wealth. With thrift and simple living as a foundation in their beliefs, they accumulated even more wealth and inadvertently resulted in dividing the people into diverse classes, quite similar to Marx’s idea. (Weber expanded that class division was not linked just control of the means of production, but from other indirect economic differences such as the person’s market position and status accorded by others.)

The accumulated wealth was then reinvested to expand enterprise, and rationally, capitalism was born to maximize their returns. Once happy to just get by, the people now actively sought surpluses, and economic factors came into play.

In essence, Marx saw the rise of capitalism wholly as a result of economic reasons. Weber recognized that economic reasons were a factor, but not just the single, primary contributing factor, and sought a causal link towards religion, namely the Protestants, as the rise of capitalism.