...A comparison between Adam Smith and Karl Marx The purpose of this essay is to evaluate and discuss how economists Adam Smith and Karl Marx contributed to current management practices and, more specifically, how they influenced the field of economics. Through critical analysis, we will explore the theories of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Adam Smith’s contributions, from division of labor and the shift from a mercantile society to a capitalistic one as proposed in his “Wealth of nations report,” will be critically evaluated as to determine both their relevance today and the influence that they have had. Similarly, Karl Marx’s theories that helped to develop the economy in its most prosperous time will be critically evaluated to determine their influence and relevancy today. Although very distant in their theories and time, both men have played key roles in the development of economics, while in turn influencing current management practices. Both men were able to change and introduce new philosophies while reacting to the circumstances of their times, while creating legacies through their works that are still relevant in today’s vastly different circumstances and society. Adam Smith Scottish economist Adam Smith, born in 1723, is responsible for the initial development of economics in the eighteenth century and provided the framework for how we approach economic issues today. Smith was an “advocate for a free market society where international trade through both imports...
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...Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution Two significant social consequences of the First Industrial Revolution were working conditions in the factories and urban living conditions from the growth of cities. The Industrial Revolution of the 1700s was a time of drastic change and a major move towards technological and social and economic changes. Socially, this was a transfer from a largely rural population in which a livelihood from agricultural and artisan craftsmanship moved towards urban centers which engaged in factory manufacturing (Fitzgerald, 2000). This was the forefront to a new way of life. The Industrial Revolution grew out of the development of the Industrial Economy with the appearance of factories from the technological inventions in several areas such as mining, iron, chemicals, and steam power. It was steam power that drove a widespread growth of several areas in particular the textile industry. Out of this innovation a new concept of the industrialized factory was introduced to society. The factory would be largely responsible for the growth of urbanization as workers moved to these urban areas in search of employment at the new factories (Fitzgerald, 2000). Due to the urbanization of these cities, the infrastructure could not keep up with the population growth. These urban areas became inundated with people looking for work. Urban areas lacked decent housing, sanitary codes, education, and police protection. The densely packed and poorly constructed...
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...Abstract The German philosopher Karl Marx provided the world with a new and different way to think about the social and economic systems. This new social philosophy was called communism and Marx’s theory on communism is referred to as Marxism. Karl Marx’s concepts of Marxism are detailed in his book “Communist Manifesto” which was published in 1848. His book discussed the issue of social structure and the problems of a capitalist society. From the time Karl Marx first presented his ideas on communism, there have been many objections from philosophers and political scientists who have argued that the idea of communism in the modern western world would not work and is not a valid social structure. Arguments Against Marxism Marxism is a sociological and economic worldview that Karl Marx and Fredric Engles developed. One aspect of Marxism is a belief that throughout human history there has always been a defined level of social class. As a consequence of this, there has always been a struggle between the different levels of social class and the exploitation of lower class people. According to Marx, the class structure has existed throughout recent human society and is continuing to prevail throughout history (Walsh 2012). A second aspect of Marxism is the belief that a capitalist system does not work in present day society. In a capitalist society, only a small percentage of the population holds means and the ownership of industry. Marx believed that power and wealth are held...
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...Karl Marx: Sociologist of the 19th Century Karl Marx: Sociologist of the 19th Century Karl Marx was a man who was way ahead of his time. He was born in modern day Germany in 1818. He came from a long line of rabbis but decided not to follow that lifestyle. At the age of 17 he decided to attend Bonn University. He was taking law classes at Bonn University, but a year later he enrolled at the University of Berlin. While attending Berlin Karl Marx joined a group called Young Hegelians. This was a radical group full of students who criticized religion and politics. This was really the first noted time that Marx questioned authority, but would not be the last. Karl Marx graduated from school with his doctorates in 1941 at the age of 23 years old (Wolff 2003) In 1842 Marx got his first real job as an editor for the newspaper Rheinische Zeitung (Parsons 1964.) A year after acquiring this job the government ordered suppression of the newspaper, which caused Marx to quit. Shortly after resigning as editor Marx got married to his long time fiancé. They two of them moved to Paris in 1843. While in Paris, Marx worked for a paper while also working on a political journal. The writings Marx had in this newspaper got him expelled from France. (Wolff 2003) The first political journal that Marx worked on was titled Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. There was only one issue of this published before Marx and his co-writer got into a disagreement and decided to not continue...
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...Edward Bernstein, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Karl Marx, born on 5th may 1818, was born into a middle class Jewish family. During his teenager years Marx studied law in the University of Bonn in 1835, until he transferred to the University of Berlin the following year to study his main interest of philosophy. During this time Karl started to work on his doctoral thesis, “some contrasts in the philosophies of Democritus and Epicurus” (Singer, P,. 2000, p-5). This was accepted in 1841 by the University of Jena. Marx became interested in journalism and began to write on philosophical, political and social issues for a new founded liberal newspaper, the Rhenish Gazette. Karl Marx also studied Hegel and the dialectical method. Hegel discussed the mode of production. This was about society and how it functions in the world of work. The bosses of the working class held the forces of production, for example owning factories and machines. However the working class held the relations of production, as they worked for the bosses to earn money for their families, using the skills that they held and learning new skills on the job, for example learning how to operate a certain machine in a factory. Karl worked on his philosophical positions during 1844 as he was fired from his job at the gazette, however could afford to not work because of a pay out from the gazette. During his time out from working a friendship between Engels and Marx began. Engels was the son of a German industrialist...
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...Option 1 Discuss Marx’s theory of alienation and assess whether it is still relevant in the contemporary workplace. In a capitalism society of those days, workers worked solely for the profit and rarely any focus will be spared on if the products were of the social need. On top of that, while the social classing was still heavily emphasized, most of the employees were not given sufficient protection and the fundamental benefits as a committed worker. This brought to the rising of Karl Marx with the term ‘Alienation’ in the year of 1844, which reflected that things naturally belong together had been separated or to put another antagonism between things that were properly in harmony. Making this statement, Karl Marx attributed the cause of alienation to the systematic result of capitalism. From the term alienation, Karl Marx had classified it into four types of alienations, namely alienation from the product, alienation from productions, alienation from others and last but not least, alienation from self. Referring back to Karl Marx, alienation from products gives the meaning that the workers have no rights to decide what they are going to produce, instead they are only focusing on the profits while the social needs are entirely ignored. Alienation from productions refers to the condition whereby the workers are not allowed to develop freely physically and mentally, they are forced to cling to the rigid rules and regulations. For the alienation from others...
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...Hugo Chavez, Marx and Engels and the Venezuelan Revolution Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels introduced the idea that history is one of a struggle between classes. Marx and Engels were not talking about the economic lower, middle, and upper classes of today. Instead, what Marx and Engels meant was the struggle between the working and capitalist classes. Another way of looking at it is the ruling class versus the ruled class. Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, had similar ideas about stopping the exploitation of the working class. I believe that Marx and Engels would agree with Chavez’s policies, programs and ideas because of Chavez’s desire to get rid of capitalism, the social reforms Chavez did and because the problems arising in Venezuela opened the door for a revolution. Marx and Engels argued that the struggle between the ruling class and the ruled class is actually the struggle between the Bourgeois and the Proletarians (2003, 126). Marx and Engels say that the expansion of industry itself has advanced the development of the Bourgeoisie, which led to the development of the Proletariat or the ruled class (2003, 127). When Marx and Engels say, “It has agglomerated population, centralized the means of production, and concentrated property in the hands of a few (Marx and Engels 2003, 129).” What this means is that Bourgeois have taken control of everything and this is what Marx and Engels are trying to get rid of. The Bourgeois control all the means of production and property...
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...Marx, K. & F. Engels ‘Bourgeois and proletarians’ Tom Considine Marx, K. & F. Engels (1972 [1848], p.1) said ‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.’ (Marx, K. & F. Engels 1972 [1848], p.1) This is the opening text from Marx and it is the theme of the rest of the chapter. Marx writes of the oppression of the proletarians and how the capitalist bourgeoisie have commodified them. He describes his disapproval for the capitalists stating that there is revolt from the proletariats due to the exploitation that was taking place, this would be the same for any capitalist society. Throughout the text there is the overriding idea that society would benefit with equality and public ownership (socialism). Then I will discuss the argument in favor of capitalism and the argument against socialism. The main concept of this text is that the capitalist society will always self destruct because of the tensions that occur between the bourgeois and proletarians. This tension is caused by the exploitation of the laborers, who work very hard for very little. Marx demonstrates that capitalism can be a destructive thing as it decreases a whole societies relationships to one that is based on greed and money. Anyone that once had a highly regarded job such as a doctor or lawyer is now a wage-laborer working in the industrial sector for the capitalists. His idea of a functioning economy is one that has societies working in cooperation with one another without...
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...Karl Marx Communist Manifesto response paper Communism is justified seemed to be the message of Karl Marx throughout his Communist Manifesto and he even provides his reasoning and examples to prove his point. Marx describes history as the constant struggle for power between the proletariats and the bourgeois, between “freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf…oppressor and oppressed” in “a fight that each time ended in either a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes” (Marx, 65). And that is where the goals of the proletariats and the communists matched up. Both groups wanted to consolidate the proletariats into a class and overthrow the bourgeois and allow the proletariats to gain political power. The communists wanted to further this revolution or overthrow of dominant power by taking control over bourgeois property because their property represented in a form the exploitation of the proletariats. (Marx, 78). This is true because the workers do not gain anything from working and the products that they produce ultimately represent something that had exploited them. Communism is further validated by Marx’s defense of Communism against the claims that communism does “ill” to society. Marx claims that “communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does it to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriation” (Marx, 80)...
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...Essay question: | E. Imagine you are the host of a popular TV or radio talk show. Choose at least three theorists whose work we have read for this course (e.g. Kant, Foucault, Marx and Engels, Althusser, Said, Haraway, Decartes, Bordo, Fanon, de Beauvoir, Smith, Hobbes, Locke, Mitchell, Weber, Kropotkin, Brown) to invite to your show. Ask the theorists to debate one of the following topics: (a) Antiterrorism legislation in Britain; (b) the use of stop and search powers; (c) racial and class discrimination in the criminal justice system; (d) the English Riots that took place during the summer of 2011 | Debate: | A debate on the right to revolt: The English riots that took place during the summer of 2011 | Host | Thank you for tuning into Provoke, the live show that asks the questions that provoke your thoughts and gets you thinking. My name is Alison and I will be your host tonight. Our guest panel consists of 3 influential theorists: English philosopher and physician, John Locke, who has been credited for the enlightenment thinking and the construction of social contract theory. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (1964), who attack class distinction and the ruling class as an unjustified dominant force in society. Last but not least, Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher who wrote the essay “What is Enlightenment?”, arguing that “enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage” (Schmidt, 1996, p. 58).Tonight’s debate will focus on the on the English riots, which...
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...structural and a conflict theory. From a structural perspective, Marxists analyse the way society as a whole fits together. It views society as a structure in which the economic base determines the shape of the superstructure. The superstructure is made up of all the institutions such as the family, the media and the education system. Their function is to serve ruling class interests and maintain a capitalist society, according to traditional Marxists. Traditional Marxism has been extended through the work of neo Marxism. Neo Marxism is a more modern, new and up to date version of traditional Marxism. Karl Marx is the founding father of Marxism and Marxism is based on the ideas of Karl Marx, hence the name Marxism. Marx describes the concept ‘Polarisation of the Classes’. This describes the historical process of the class structure becoming increasingly polarised. Marx describes how in capitalist society the class structure becomes polarised into a wealthy bourgeoisie and an impoverished proletariat. One way in which Marxist theories helps us to understand society is through explaining historical materialism. Materialism is the view that all humans are beings with material needs, such as food, clothing and shelters and must therefore work in order to meet them. Overtime tools have been developed to help achieve material needs. This has led to two classes. Those that own and control the means of production and those that don’t. There are five epochs or eras. 1. Primitive...
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...Karl Marx (1818-83) grew up in Germany under the same conservative and oppressive conditions under which Kant and other German philosophers had to live. The Enlightenment had had some liberating effects on German life here and there, but most German principalities were still autocratic, and the idea of democracy was combated by all their rulers. The presence of police spies at major universities was a regular feature of German student life, and some students served long prison sentences for their political activism. As a law and philosophy student at the University of Berlin, Marx joined a political club that advocated political democracy. Very soon after receiving his doctorate, however, his ideas went beyond mere political reform. His future friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels introduced him to socialist and communist ideas, i. e., to ideas which progressed from mere political to social and economic reforms. For the rest of his life Marx dedicated himself to the project of radically restructuring modern industrial society along socialist and communist lines. In time he became the single most important theoretician and prominent leader of a growing international labor movement. Since Marx participated in the Revolution of 1848 as an influential newspaper editor (in a revolution that was defeated by the monarchists, and the defeat of which led scores of liberal Europeans to emigrate to the United States and elsewhere), he found it preferable to leave the stifling and backward...
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...Are you a communist? No, a citizen of the United States of America can’t be a communist. But Karl Marx was a communist, or at least he founded some of the main principles of communism, and Karl Marx firmly believed in some of the things that make this country what it is, like equality. But, Karl Marx was still a great political philosopher of his time, and a humanitarian. To really understand the principles of Marx’s teachings one would have to study him, or at least read an essay that describes Marx’s life. There are three key elements to understanding Marx they are his childhood and education, the people that had the greatest influence on him, and his writings. At 2:00 A.M. of May 5, 1818, the life of the greatest political philosopher began. He was born in the Rhine province of Prussia, and was born to Henriette and Hirschel Marx (Payne 17). Hirschel Marx was a rich lawyer, and he was also a Jew (World Book Encyclopedia 236M). On August 26, 1824 Karl and his whole family were baptized, so his family turned away from its traditional Jewish teachings to Protestant Christianity (Payne 21). At the age of twelve Karl entered the Friedrich Wilhiem Gymnasium. He stayed there for five years excelling in foreign languages, but not really caring about mathematics and history (Payne 23). Karl’s father decided that Karl would attend the University of Bonn to study law (World Book Encyclopedia 236M). Karl became an active member of “poetry clubs,” while studying at the University...
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...caste system in traditional India, slavery and feudalism (Bilton et al 1994, pp. 36-41). From a study of other systems it is clear that not all systems of stratification are organised in terms of social class; the caste system for example was stratified in terms of status. In societies where ‘economic relationships are primary’, however, the division of members into groups in terms of similarities in attitudes, lifestyles and occupations is generally termed divisions of class. (Bilton et al 1994, p.36) For classic sociologist Karl Marx, an examination of the workings of social strata was essential to an understanding of social inequality. Stratification by class was particularly important to him and he in fact argued that ‘all societies, except for the most primitive and tribal ones, were…class societies’ (Fulcher and Scott 1999, p. 605). Marx further argued that ‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’ (Marx and Engels 1848 in Fulcher and Scott...
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...Capital Gains A majority of people in America can hardly imagine an existence without capitalism; individuals consume without a thought when we buy the latest cell phone or a new pair of hundred dollar designer jeans. It is clear that most of the world supports some form of capitalism and therefore, at least for now, capitalism has won the struggle between economic systems. Capitalism began in 1200 CE with rug merchants. Just like many traders, today, the rug merchants had to borrow money to buy their wares in order to then resell them for profit, but they had to pay back the money borrowed—usually with interest. This was called mercantile capitalism and it was a global phenomenon, from the Indian and Chinese Ocean trade to Muslim merchants who funded trade caravanserai across the Sahara. Later, merchants in Britain had expanded capitalism by developing stock companies which financed even bigger trade missions. Increased wealth of course resulted by the increased investment, but it only affected as small percentage of the population and did not create cultural influence from capitalism. Mercantile capitalism only affected a small percentage of the population, whereas industrial capitalism impacted majority of the population. Industrial capitalism was something altogether different, both in practice and scale. According to Joyce Appleby’s definition of industrial capitalism: “An economic system that relies on investment of capital in machines and technology that are used...
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