Consequences of the Industrial Revolution - Essay Example

He felt that workers were exploited and that the government was in the corner of the business. The people rejected what Marx called “the crowned rule of a class, the capital on the throne,” and they sought to overthrow it and establish a fairer system where they would be paid in a more equitable manner for the work they did. Anarchists had similar complaints but wanted wholesale destruction of the government. They felt that the centralizing order that governments created and the hierarchical power structure implemented by governments were by nature repressive.

In the opinion of Malatesta, “the governors are those who have the power, in a greater or lesser degree, to make use of the collective force of society, that is, of the physical, intellectual, and economic force of all, to oblige each to their (the governors’) wish.” Ordinary people have no control over their lives under this system. The government should be an aggregate of individuals, not a centralizing force. These political movements began during the industrial revolution.

They eventually ran their course in Western countries as economic liberalism created politically powerful middle classes.