Consequently, owners benefit from imposing these values on workers because they have less doubt about their place and purpose in life. An emphasis on competition rather than cooperation is beneficial for production owners as it motivates progress. According to this concept, people perceive individualistic values that are beneficial to the bourgeoisie as fundamental even if they do not correspond to their interests (Appelrouth & Edles, 2021). Thus, this theory explains the ideas of increasing individualism as a consequence of alienation and the cause of the capitalistic processes that destroy society, which should ultimately lead to the proletariat’s revolution.Īnother theory that follows the processes of oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie is the concept of false consciousness. As a result, all these processes lead to isolation from oneself and a lack of a sense of belonging to the profession, which reduces a person’s self-esteem and self-worth. At the same time, isolation from others leads to the fact that the employee is only interested in receiving payment, but not in cooperation and communication with other people (Bratton & Denham, 2019). This isolation makes people disillusioned with life. The alienation from the labor process is based on the fact that the employee is obliged to fulfill the requirements imposed by the employer but cannot be creative (Bratton & Denham, 2019). Alienation from the product arises because an employee does only part of the work and often does not even see the final product. According to this theory, workers forced to perform routine and hard work experience isolation from society and work (Bratton & Denham, 2019). The theory of alienation, which Marx formulates, is based on the exploitation of the labor of the proletariat. This vision also allows Marx to formulate another theory that encompasses the social interaction of people and their intrinsic motives for action. In the Manifesto of the Communist Party, he says, “Not only are they the slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself” (Marx and Engels, 1848/2010, p. However, capitalism is the highest form of exploitation, according to Marx. In general, Marx believes that class conflict has been the foundation of society throughout history, since there has always been a class that had power and money in its hands, such as the slave owners, and used the subordinate class to accumulate wealth. Marx’s ideas are based on the theory of class conflict, in which capitalism is a means of oppressing the proletariat by the bourgeoisie (Appelrouth & Edles, 2021). Thus, the presence of a middle class in Weber destroys Marx’s idea, since its representatives are not oppressed and do not oppress.Īnother difference between the two sociologists is the perception of capitalism and state institutions. Such a slight difference is of great importance for the ideas of the two theoreticians since according to Marx, the proletariat oppressed by the bourgeoisie must win the class revolution. Although Marx originally speaks of three classes, such as wage laborers, capitalists, and landowners, more often, his writings refer to two key classes the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (Appelrouth & Edles, 2021).Īt the same time, although Weber also divides societies into classes regarding their economic capabilities, he also includes the middle class along with the lower and upper classes. On this basis, Marx and Weber distinguish classes into which the community is divided however, their classification is different. Marx and Weber acknowledge that the development of capitalism brought shifts in the social structure as the growth of production changed the quality of human interaction. The ideas of Karl Marx and Max Weber have many similarities since both sociologists devote considerable time to the study of bureaucracy and capitalism that affect the structure and functions of society. This article will compare and contrast sociological perspectives, methods, and theoretical contributions by Max Weber and Karl Marx to demonstrate the fundamental foundations of sociology based on the ideas of these sociologists. All three sociologists have some common ideas and significant differences that complement knowledge about the structure and functioning of society, as well as the place of the individual in it.
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