Capitalism's Achievements and Triumphs - Essay Example

Insert Title Name: Institution Module: Instructor: 13th June, 2009 Introduction Capitalism's achievements and triumphs are deeply rooted not only in advancement, but also in aggression, coercion, mistreatment, segregation, wastage as well as in warfare in both developed and developing states. Within the class analysis of Australia and other parts of the world, capitalism has always been able to rise above its own permanent inconsistency, although not without worsening the aggression with which they have been associated with and resolve to be practiced by subsequent generations (Rowse, 1978). A society in which the entire roots of coercion and mistreatment have to be eliminated along with the roots of all social disparity. For a country like Australia, this will entail philosophical changes in culture, belongings and power affairs. For this to happen and be successful democracy is very vital as of the crimes obligated in pretext of this name and socialism (Marx, 1969). Democracy has also been crucial for the reason that it means populace benefiting over their work in addition to their way of living. It implies power flowing from one level to another. Therefore, there is need to reinvent democracy if socialism is needed to spell the self-management of Australia among other nations and play its responsibility during the change. Social change in Australia and other parts of the world Class analysis is the basis for understanding social change in Australia and around the world. This essay assesses the extent to which varying forms of class as well as identity in Australia and other parts of the world over the post-war period call for innovative sociological advances. In this discussion, this will involve provision of a brief synopsis of Marx's and Weber's class along with identity scrutiny (Cassidy, 1997). This will serve as a contemplation of the upshot of the changes in the lead of the social structure of post-war Australia and other regions around the world and in conclusion, an evaluation of the implications of these changes for some hypothesis of classical sociology. Nevertheless, it can be contended that, in spite of the confirmed letdown of several Marx's predictions that failed to materialise, his views concerning class structure as well as class consciousness could be corrected in order to have room for the outcomes of the remarkable changes which taken position particularly in post-war contemporary societies. The notion of modernization was a visual reaction toward circumstances of modernity created as a result of the process of economic modernisation, which surfaced along with industrialisation just before the end of the 19th century. It was Karl Marx who provided one of the initial as well as the most comprehensive accounts of capitalist modernisation in relation to class analysis. Karl’s insights regarding an uninterrupted disturbance of the entire social setting significantly added to early on sociological deliberations. The perception of class analyses in post-modernism has also been linked with economic transformations and shaped through aesthetic as well as sociological contemplations, specifically concerning the correlation involving class composition and forms of perception (Rowse, 1978). It suggests that the nature, trend in addition to appearance of the changes that have characterised contemporary societies throughout the post-war era which have manifested out a peculiarly new course for societies. The two major approaches in regard to class involve those of Marx and Weber. The two approaches have influenced nearly the entire successive sociological debates besides leading to the neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian models. Marx's outset of class presumes a fundamental separation involving the bourgeoisie and the working class, the two basic sets of people equally correlated to the way of production. This tends to be essential to an analysis of present societies whose center of attention is on production and exploitation. On the side of Marx, production comprises several possibilities including the option for freedom as well as the option for domination along with exploitation of one or else other classes by the ruling class (Marx, 1969). For Marx, class has been considered to be essential in illustrating the economic position of diverse groups. In regard to Marx, classes were seen as real social forces with the capability to revolutionize society. Throughout his description, Marx also illustrated that owing to relentless exploitation, workers would build up a class perception, thus creating the distinctiveness of their class interests as well as organise politically intended for action so as to advance their class struggle and revolution. Nevertheless, as Marx views classes in relation with production along with exploitation, Weber emphasises on the market, consumption plus distribution, and considers classes to be one of three phenomena within a society, among them status, group in addition to party. Weber differentiates the four classes and also makes it clear that class conflict are most common and likely to take place between workers and managers as compared to workers and capitalists. Distinguished power, not economic mistreatment, is the basis of Weber's analysis of class which has been a point of attraction to individuals who resist the welfare of the working class. These are the basic differentiations involving the two approaches that are underrated by various sociologists who consider the two models of class analysis to be not irreconcilable. Social changes in contemporary societies The post-war social changes in current Australia and other parts of the world have brought crescent levels of social mobility and advancement, as well as improved affluence for numerous social clusters; and most importantly it brought a more fluid social composition owing to class disintegration. The particular outcome of this change in Australia was the managerial revolution, which saw the separation of the ownership of firms from their administration along with their control, and this significantly augmented the middle-class ranks by means of vast managerial bureaucracies as well as technical and professional occupations. However, owing to technological adjustments in Australia and other parts of the world, manual labour turned down significantly. This along with other changes led to vital deliberations in the midst of social scientists. Some of these social scientists have asserted that we currently reside within an egalitarian society where the manipulation of class as a form of social stratification along with identity is negligible, and where class great effort in addition to revolution as envisioned by Marx are not feasible. It was recently, when others went an extra mile to declare that class could rarely provide us with purchase on the large issues. However, this is not the true picture in Australia or other parts of the world. The heart of the matter is that, within the previous two decades, the slimming down of the production and of huge fractions of the service labour force has fashioned a great deal of part-time as well as casual employment, in addition to high levels of unemployment as a result infuriating social inequalities and scattering a lasting underclass (Rowse, 1978). For that reason and different from some claims most societies are still in presence of a very complex social structure where class divisions and identities remain very visible and essential. At least toward this level, most of the societies are not in a post-modern world. However, this should not deny that latest sociological approaches are hardly ever required in enlightening the changing forms of class and identity. It’s well known worldwide that by the early part of the 20th century the rise in commercial management in addition to technical labour slash across Marx's bipolar class composition. Moreover, with the continuos increase in the administrative bureaucracies, with technical and expert occupations suit for Marxists what Erik Wright referred as the ‘‘humiliation of the middle-class’’. For the reason of eliminating it, Wright devised a notion of the middle-class in the structure of class relations within which capitalists were judged as exploiters and dominators, while for workers as exploited and dominated, besides describing managers as dominators and exploited. Moreover, in most contemplation of neo-Weberians and neo-Marxism, there has been differentiation within the classes of high-paid and lower-paid. On the other hand, some neo-Marxists also have made corrections on the reductionist Marxist postulation that was used to reflect on gender, racial as well as other inequalities to be mere consequences of class. In winding up, some Marxists have figured out the collective effects of post-war financially viable and technological changes in the lead of the social composition of Australia and other developed societies and have been able to discard or correct various classical Marxist postulations, which had either been outdated or were erroneous (Fieles, 1996). Conclusion Nonetheless, the Marxist reaction in the direction of neo-modernist and neo-Weberian allegations and condemnations reveals that the Marxist sociological moves scrutinized in our discussion - and linked to class disintegration, class activities among other social affairs, and identity – that could entirely be accommodated within the key elements of the classical Marxist structure (Connell, 1992). For that reason, Marxists keep hold of the analysis of class exploitation, division, conflict as well as consciousness created as a result of the relationships of production. It can also be argued that the innovatory prospective of the working class remains. And to conclude, differing from neo-Weberian as well as neo-modernist arguments, Marxists respond that post-war modernized societies still have numerous essentials of the contemporary capitalist society. References Cassidy, J. (1997). The next thinker: The return of Karl Marx’ The New Yorker. F-R Pub.Corp., October 20& 27, pp.248-259. Connell, R.W & Irving, T. H. (1992).’ Yes, Virginia, there is a ruling class’. In T. Jagtenberg & P.D’ Alton (Eds) Four Dimensional Social Space: Class, gender, ethnicity and Nature: A reader in Australian social sciences, Artarmon: Harper Educational, pp. 39-44. Fieles, D. (1996).’ Still here, still fighting: The working class in the nineties’. In Rick Kuhn, & Tom O’Lincoln (Eds) Class and class Conflict in Australia, Melbourne: Longman Australia, Chapter 2, pp.22-39 Marx, K& Engels, F. (1969).’Preface to a contribution to the critique of political economy’, in Selected Works, Vol.1.Moscow: Progress, pp. 503-504. Marx, K. (1969). The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, in Marx, K. and Engels, F. Selected Works, Vol.1. Moscow: Progress Publishers, pp. 406-407, 420-421, 478-479. Rowse, T. (1978). Liberalism and national character, Kibble Books, Melbourne, p. 93 96. Read More