MARXS CONTRIBUTION TO POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

POLITICAL SCIENCE PROJECT

MARXS CONTRIBUTION TO POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
PROJECT SUBMITTED TO:
DR. AVINASH SAMAL
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE)

PROJECT SUBMITTED BY:

KEVIN JAMES
Semester II, Section A

ROLL NO. 76
SUBMITTED ON: 26.02.2014

HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

RAIPUR, CHHATTISGARH

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Acknowledgements

I, Kevin James, would like to humbly present this project to Dr. Avinash Samal. I
would first of all like to express my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Avinash Samal for his
encouragement and guidance regarding several aspects of this project. I am thankful for being
given the opportunity of doing a project on Marxs Contribution to Political Philosophy.
I am thankful to the library staff as well as the IT lab staff for all the conveniences
they have provided me with, which have played a major role in the completion of this paper.
I would like to thank God for keeping me in good health and senses to complete this
project.
Last but definitely not the least, I am thankful to my seniors for all their support, tips
and valuable advice whenever needed. I present this project with a humble heart.

KEVIN JAMES

SEMESTER II, SECTION A, ROLL NUMBER 76

BA LLB (HONS.)

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Declaration

I hereby declare that this research work titled Marxs Contribution to Political
Philosophy is my own work and represents my own ideas, and where others ideas or words
have been included, I have adequately cited and referenced the original sources. I also declare
that I have adhered to all principles of academic honesty and integrity and have not
misrepresented or fabricated or falsified any idea/data/fact/source in my submission.

...
(KEVIN JAMES)

Date:

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Contents

1) Introduction...5

2) Marxs Works and Legacy..................................8

3) Marxian Theory of Class Conflict......11

4) Analysis of Marxian Perspective on Class Conflict......16

5) Conclusion19

6) References.20

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Introduction
Karl

Marx was

a German philosopher, economist, sociologist,historian, journalist,

and revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for the current
understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and has influenced much of subsequent
economic thought.1 He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being
The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital.
Born into a wealthy middle-class family in Trier in the Prussian Rhineland, Marx
studied at the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in
the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. After his studies, he wrote for a radical
newspaper in Cologne, and began to work out his theory of dialectical materialism. He
moved to Paris in 1843, where he began writing for other radical newspapers and
met Fredrick Engels, who would become his lifelong friend and collaborator. In 1849 he was
exiled and moved to London together with his wife and children where he continued writing
and formulating his theories about social and economic activity. He also campaigned for
socialism and became a significant figure in the International Workingmen's Association.
Further, one of his most significant contributions is the theory of class conflict. In this
project, this theory has been discussed in depth so that we can get an up close look as to how
a typical Marxian theory works, and use it as an example to understand what Marxs real
views were, and how he went about postulating solutions for the problems that he perceived
existed in society.

1 Roberto Mangabeira Unger. Free Trade Reimagined: The World Division of Labor and the Method of
Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007

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Aims and Objectives

I.
II.

To understand the full extent of Marxs contribution to Political Philosophy.

To consider one of his many theories, namely, the conflict theory, and to
critically analyse it to gain insight on the nature of his contributions.

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Research Methodology

Nature of Research
This research work is part descriptive and part analytical in nature. It describes the
contribution of Karl Marx to Political Science as a whole, and then describes his conflict
theory, analysing its pros and cons.

Sources of Data
This study is done with the help of secondary data. This secondary information has been
obtained from published sources such as books, journals, websites, newspapers, research
works etc.

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Marxs Works and Legacy

Marx's theories about society, economics and politics collectively known
as Marxism hold that human societies progress through class struggle: a conflict between an
ownership class that controls production and a dispossessed labouring class that provides the
labour for production. He called capitalism the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie," believing it
to be run by the wealthy classes for their own benefit; and he predicted that, like previous
socioeconomic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its selfdestruction and replacement by a new system: socialism. He argued that class antagonisms
under capitalism between the bourgeoisie and proletariat would eventuate in the working
class' conquest of political power in the form of a dictatorship of the proletariat and
eventually establish a classless society, socialism or communism, a society governed by afree
association of producers.2 Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and
communism, Marx actively fought for their implementation, arguing that social theorists and
underprivileged people alike should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple
capitalism and bring about socio-economic change.3
Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human
history.4 Revolutionary socialist governments espousing Marxist concepts took power in a
variety of countries in the 20th century, leading to the formation of such socialist states as
the Soviet Union in 1922 and the People's Republic of China in 1949. Many labour unions
and workers' parties worldwide are influenced by Marxism, while various theoretical
variants, such as Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, and Maoism, were developed from them.
Marx is typically cited, with mile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal
architects of modern social science.5
Marx's ideas have had a profound impact on world politics and intellectual thought.6 His
work gave birth to modern sociology, has had a lasting legacy in economic thought, and
profoundly affected philosophy, literature, the arts, and almost all of the academic

2 Karl Marx: Critique of the Gotha Program (Marx/Engels Selected Works, Volume Three, pp. 1330;)
3 Craig J. Calhoun (2002). Classical sociological theory. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 2324.
4 "Marx the millennium's 'greatest thinker'". BBC News World Online. 1 October 1999.
5 "Max Weber Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy".
6 Kenneth Allan (11 May 2010). The Social Lens: An Invitation to Social and Sociological Theory. Pine Forge
Press. p. 68

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disciplines.7 Such widespread influence is postulated to be a result of his work's "morally
empowering language of critique" against the dominant capitalist society. Paul Ricur calls
Marx one of the masters of the "school of suspicion", alongside Friedrich
Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud.8 Karl Lwithconsidered Marx and Sren Kierkegaard to be
the two greatest Hegelian philosophical successors.[232]
In social theory, twentieth and twenty-first centuries thinkers have pursued two main
strategies in response to Marx. One move has been to reduce it to its analytical core, known
as Analytical Marxism, which came at the cost of sacrificing its most interesting and
perplexing ideas. Another, more common move has been to dilute the explanatory claims of
Marx's social theory and to emphasise the "relative autonomy" of aspects of social and
economic life not directly related to Marx's central narrative of interaction between the
development of the "forces of production" and the succession of "modes of production." Such
has been, for example, the neo-marxist theorising adopted by historians inspired by Marx's
social theory, such as E. P. Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. It has also been a line of thinking
pursued by thinkers and activists like Antonio Gramsci who have sought to understand the
opportunities and the difficulties of transformative political practice, seen in the light of
Marxist social theory.9
A third response is to harvest the key insights of Marx's social theory while offering a radical
alternative to Marx's account of societies and of the ways in which they change. One of the
most developed alternatives in contemporary thought is the work of Roberto Mangabeira
Unger.10 Unger takes Marx as a point of departure for rethinking social, political, and
economic arrangements, crediting him for recognising that institutions treated as universal
and eternal are in fact the "laws" of particular social formationwhat Marx called
capitalism.[11However, for Unger, Marx compromised the power of this insight by allowing it
to be tainted by three sets of necessitarian assumptions. The first such assumption holds that
there is a closed list of fundamental types of social, political, and economic organisation,
such as feudalism and capitalismMarx's modes of production. As a result, the space for
innovation in social life is very limited. The second assumption claims that each of these
7 William Roseberry (1997) Marx and AnthropologyAnnual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 26: pp. 2546
(October 1997)
8 Ricoeur, Paul. Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 1970, p. 32
9 Hobsbawm, E. J. How to Change the World: Marx and Marxism, 18402011
10 David M. Trubek, Radical Theory and Programmatic Thought, American Journal of Sociology 95, no. 2
(1989): 451452.
11 Samuel Moyn, The Politics of Economy, Ethics & International Affairs 16, no. 2 (2002).

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types is an indivisible unit: all its parts stand or fall together. As a result, politics is either the
revolutionary substitution of one type for another, or a reformist management of one of the
types. The third assumption supposes the succession of these indivisible social and economic
systems (Marx's modes of production) to be driven forward in history by irresistible laws of
transformation. As a result, programmatic thinking about alternatives has a restricted field of
application; history supplies the only realistic program of change.12

MARXIAN THEORY OF CLASS CONFLICT

12 David M. Trubek, Programmatic Thought and the Critique of the Social Disciplines, in Critique and
Construction, ed. M Perry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

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The theory of class struggle or class conflict is central to Marxian thought. We will
take this theory as a case in point, to illustrate how exactly a typical Marxian theory goes. By
analysing this theory in depth, we will explore the manner in which Marx thought, thereby
gaining a valuable insight into his psyche, and his contribution at large. We will also study
the recurrent undercurrents to most of his theories, by studying this one major theory in
detail. The main premise of the Marxian class theory is to be found in the opening sentences
of his famous work the The Communist Manifesto, 1848 which reads as follows: 13
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman
and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word,
oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an
uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a
revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending
classes. 14
It is clear from above, that at every stage in history, there is a way between the
classes. The landowner exploits the landless, and the factory owner exploits the workers.
Between classes, there is endless antagonism and hatred. Class conflict is the severest form of
class antagonism.
Marx says that according to the relentless law of history, a particular class owns and
controls the means of production, and by virtue of this exploits the rest of the people. The
capitalist class makes use of the state as an instrument of oppression and exploitation. Thus at
every stage there are broadly two classes: The owners of means of production, that is,
exploiters on one side and the exploited on the other. History presents nothing but the record
of a war between classes, every exploiting class at each stage gives rise to an opposite class,
Hence thesis and antithesis can be noted. Feudal barons and capitalists form the thesis, and
the serf and the proletariat respectively constitute the antithesis, Marx gave a call to the
workers to overthrow the thesis of capitalism by the antithesis of organised labour. 15
ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF THE MARXIAN THEORY OF CLASS CONFLICT

13 Marx, Karl, Communist Manifesto (1976)

14 Gokhale, B.K., Political Science Theory and Governmental Machinery 423-424 (1972)
15
Rao, C.N. Shankar, Sociology: Principles of Sociology with an introduction to Social Thought, S., 724 (2012)

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Marx developed the theory of class conflict in his analysis and critique of the
capitalist society. The main ingredients of this theory of conflict have been enlisted by
Abraham and Morgan which may be briefly described here:16
The Development of the Proletariat
Accentuation of capital is the essence of capitalism. In Raymond Arons words, The
essence of capitalist exchange is to proceed from money to money by way of commodity and
end up with more money than one had at the outset. Capital is gained, according to Marx,
from the exploitation of the masses of population, the working class, The capitalist
economic systems transformed the masses of people into workers, created for them a
common situation and inculcated in them an awareness of common interest. Through the
development of class consciousness, the economic conditions of capitalism united the masses
and constituted them into a class for itself17
Importance of Property
According to Marx the most distinguishing feature of any society is its form of
property. An individuals behaviour is determined by his relations to property. Classes are
determined on the basis of individuals relation to the means of production. Means of
production or forces of production represent a type of property which in the capitalist society
are owned by the capitalists. Here an individuals occupation is not important but his
relations to the means of production, are important. Property divisions are the crucial
breaking lines in the class structure.18
Identification of Economic and Political Power and Authority
From a Marxian perspective, political power emerges from economic power. The
power of the ruling class therefore stems from its ownership and control of the forces of
production. The political and legal systems reflect ruling class interests. In Marxs words:
The existing relations of production between individuals must necessarily express themselves
also as political and legal relations. The capitalists who hold monopoly of effective private
16 Ibid note 7
17 Abraham, Francis & Morgan, John, H., Sociological Thought, 37 (1989)
18 Haralambos, M. and Martin Holborn, Sociology: Themes and Perspectives, 39-40 (2004)

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property take control of political machinery. Their interests are clearly reflected in their
political and ideological spheres. As Raymond Aron points out Political power, properly so
called is merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another. The political
power and ideology this seem to serve the same functions for capitalists that class
consciousness serves for the working class.
Polarisation of Classes
In the capitalist society there could be only two social classes. 1) The capitalists who
own the means of production and distribution and 2) the working classes who own nothing
but their own labour. Though Marx had repeatedly referred to the intermediate state such as
the small capitalists, the petti bourgeoisie, and the lumpenproletariat, he was of the
firm belief that at the height of conflict these would be drawn into the ranks of the proletariat.
Raymond Aron has termed this proves as proletarianisation.
Theory of Surplus Value
Marx believed that the capitalists accumulate profit through the exploitation of labour.
In fact, the relationship between the capitalists and workers is not only one of dominance and
subordination, but also of exploitation. The workers produce more wealth in the form of food,
manufactured goods and services than is necessary to meet their basic needs. In other words,
they produce surplus wealth. But they do not enjoy the use of the surplus they have created.
Instead, those who own the means of production are able to seize this surplus wealth as
profit for their own use. According to Marx, this is the essence of exploitation and the main
source of conflict between the classes.
Pauperisation
Exploitation of the workers can only add to their misery and poverty. But the same
exploitation helps the rich to become richer. As Marx says the wealth of the bourgeoisie is
swelled by large profits with corresponding increase in the mass of poverty; of pressure of
slavery, of exploitation of the proletariat. In every mode of production which involves the
exploitation of man by man, majority of people, the people who labour, are condemned to toil
for no more than the barest necessities of life. With this, society gets divided into rich and
poor. To Marx, poverty is the result of exploitation of scarcity.

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Alienation
The process of alienation is central to the Marxian theory of class conflict. The
economic exploitation and inhuman working conditions lead to increasing alienation of man.
Alienation results from a lack of sense of control over the social world. The social world
confronts people as a hostile thing leaving them alien in the very environment they have
created. The workers caught in the vicious circle of exploitation find no way to get out of it.
Hence they lose interest in work. Work becomes an enforced activity, not a creative and a
satisfying one. The responsibility of the worker gets diminished because he does not own the
tools with which he works, he does not own the final product too. He is a mere cog in a
machine and nothing else. This situation of alienation ripens the mood of the worker for a
conflict.
Class solidarity and antagonism
With the growth of class consciousness among the working class, their class solidarity
becomes crystalized. The working class becomes internally more homogeneous and this
would help to intensify the class struggle. Because of this class feeling and solidarity, the
workers are able to form unions against the bourgeoisie. They club together in order to keep
up the rate of wages. They form associations in order to make provisions beforehand for
occasional revolts. Here and there contests break out into riots.
Revolution
When the class struggle reaches its height, a violent revolution breaks out which
destroys the structure of capitalist society. Thus revolution is most likely to occur at the peak
of an economic crisis which is part of the recurring booms, and repressions characteristic of
capitalism. Marx predicted that the capitalists would grow fewer and stronger as a result of
their endless competition; that the middle class would disappear into the working class, and
that the growing poverty of the workers would spark a successful revolution. Marx had
asserted, unlike other wars and revolutions, this would be a historic one.

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat

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Marx felt that the revolution would be a bloody one. This revolution terminates the
capitalist society and leads to the social dictatorship of the proletariat. Since the revolution
results in the liquidation of the bourgeoisie, they will cease to have any power and will be
reduced to the ranks of the proletariat. Thus, the inevitable historical process destroys the
bourgeoisie. The proletariat, then establish their social dictatorship. But this expression,
social dictatorship of the proletariat has become a topic of controversy among the
communists themselves. Many have abandoned the treacherous phrase particularly after the
tyrannical Stalinist and post-Stalinist dictatorships. Marx himself had written that he
differentiated himself from those communists who were out to destroy personal liberty and
who wish to turn the world into one large barrack or into a gigantic warehouse.
Inauguration of the Communist Society
After attaining the success in the revolution, the workers in course of time, would
create a new socialist society, In this new society the means of producing and distributing
wealth would be publicly and not privately owned, This new socialist society would be a
classless and a casteless society fee from exploitation of all sorts, The state which has no
place in such a society will eventually wither away. In this society nobody owns anything but
everybody owns everything. Each individual contributes according to his ability and receives
according to his needs.19

19

Ibid note 5 at pg. 734-736

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ANALAYSIS OF MARXIAN PERSPECTIVE ON CLASS

CONFLICT
THE POSITIVES:
A Comprehensive Theory of Social Change
According to T.B. Bottomore, a leading expert on Marxist sociology, though a Marxs
theory of class cannot be treated as a theory of stratification, it can definitely be treated as a
comprehensive theory of social change. It can be considered as a tool for the explanation of
change in total societies.20 This is reflected by Marxian view that Societies are mutable
systems in which changes are produced largely by internal contradictions and conflicts. Even
the worst critics argue that Marxian theory provides an excellent framework for the analysis
of conflict and change in modern society.21
A good Alternative to the western Functional Theory:
During the recent years, especially after sixties, due to the efforts of C. Wright Mills
and others, Marxs writings became quite popular in the west including America. There is
one main reason for this. As Bottomore has pointed out, the conflict theory of Marx served in
all respects as a counter theory to the functional theory which reigned supreme in the
Western world. The functional theory stresses the importance of social harmony, social
equilibrium and social stability but undermines the role of conflict elements within the
society that would lead to the changes in the structure of society.22 Marxs theory of conflict
removes this deficiency and thus provides an alternative to the functional theory. Further,
Marxs influence on contemporary sociological theory is growing and Marxist Sociology
has already become an established branch of the discipline.
A Warning to the Capitalists
It can be said that the ultimate purpose of Marx was to achieve the welfare of the
working community and to lay the foundations of a classless, casteless society based on
social harmony and justice. He sincerely believed that his purpose could be realised by a
20

Bottomore, T.B., Sociology: A Guide to Problems and Literature (1986)

Ibid note 5
22
Ibid note 10
21

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historic class struggle and by the destruction of the capitalist class. His powerful writings,
earnest efforts to save the labour community from exploitation, popularisation of socialist
ideology, predictions of the future, and his clarion call to the working class to unite and fight
against injustice etc. created a sort of awareness not only among the workers but also among
the capitalists. They started taking Marxs predictions as warnings and his analysis of the
capitalist regime highly suggestive to correct themselves. As a result, they changed their
approach towards them, brought out number of labour legislations to promote their interests
and undertook many of the labour welfare programmes. Hence, we do not find that kind of
exploitation of the labourers which Marx had witnessed during his lifetime.
An Integral Approach
Marx has time and again stressed that we should have an integral view of the society
and not a partial one. According to him, society is the net result of the interwoven social
groups, institutions, beliefs, practices, ideas, principles and ideologies. Hence these
constituent elements should not be studied independently or separately but as interconnected
ones. This integral approach of Marx is of great sociological significance, says Bottomore. 23
THE NEGATIVES:
Classless and Stateless society is Utopian
Marxist theory of social classes is ambiguous and debatable. His analysis of the rise
of social classes may be applicable to the western societies but not to Asiatic societies
including the Indian society. And Marxs classless and stateless society is utopian. Nowhere
in the world, including in the so called communist societies such as Russia, China, Cuba,
Poland and the like, such state of affairs exist. Thus Marx has been proved to be a failure in
many respects.
Pure Bourgeoisie and the Proletariats do not exist
It is recommended that the Marxist division of capitalist society in to two sections
the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is not seen anywhere. As Raymond Aron has said, The
analogy between the rise of the proletariat and the rise of the bourgeoisie is sociologically
false. In order to restore the equivalence between the rise of bourgeoisie and the rise of the
23

Ibid note 10

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proletariat, the Marxists are forced to resort to something which they themselves condemn
when practised by others, namely, myth.
Marx has neglected or underestimated the Role of Non-economic factors in social life
Marx has been criticised for the undue emphasis he laid on the economic forces or
factors. He has ignored other important sources of power. His assertion that economic forces
play the determining role in bringing about social change and in leading to the historical class
struggle, has compelled his critics to dub his theories as Theories of economic
determinism. As we know all deterministic theories, in one way or the other, are one sided
and misleading; Much Against the assertion of Marx, Max Weber has established that even
the religious beliefs and attitudes contribute to the development of capitalism. 24
Too much Emphasis on Alienation
Marx misjudged and even exaggerated the extent of alienation of the average worker.
The great depth of alienation and frustration which Marx witnessed among the workers of
his day and not typical of todays capitalism or its worker. Marx witnessed among the
workers of his day is not typical of todays capitalism or its worker Further, the workers
tend to identify themselves not entirely and only with their working class groups, but also
with a number of meaningful, groups religious, ethnic, caste, occupational and local. This
does not mean that alienation does not exist in the modern capitalist societies. It could rather
be said that alienation results more from the structure of the bureaucracy.25
Polarisation of classes and Self-destruction of the capitalist class is too simplistic
Marxs theory of class conflict and his political ideas have been highly criticised. His
theory about capitalist societys inevitable tendency towards radical polarisation and selfdestruction is too simplistic and fallacious. The most distinct characteristic of modern
capitalist has been the emergence of a large, contended and conservative middle-class,
consisting of managerial, professional, supervisory, and technical personnel. Marx neglected
the importance of the role of this middle class. Todays capitalism does not justify Marxs

24
25

Raymond Aron, Main Currents in Sociological Thought 181 (1998)

Ibid note 5 at p. 743-745

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belief that class conflict is essentially revolutionary in character and that structural changes
are always the product of violent upheavals.26

Conclusion

The problem is, that Marxs grandest theories are not substantiated adequately. But he
is not to be abandoned. His writings are among the most powerful in the Western intellectual
tradition, and, true or false, they are to be appreciated and admired. But further, he does say
many true and inspiring things. His work is full of insight and illumination. We have found
many such assessment examples. Marx remains the most profound and acute critic of
capitalism, even as it exists today. As his critics would say, we may have no condence in his
solutions to the problems he identies, but this does not make the problems go away. The
theory of class struggle often known as the theory of class conflict is one of the most
important theories given by Karl Marx. The contributions of Karl Marx to the development of
political thought can hardly be exaggerated. He was undoubtedly a genius and a profound
scholar. It is not an easy task to evaluate the contribution and influences of Karl Marx and his
thoughts on his followers and opponents. He has profoundly influenced western thought,
sociological, economic and political thought. That being said though, Marxism as a theory
has been losing its relevance in the modern world. After the fall of U.S.S.R. and other
socialistic states, the Marxian views are now treated as an ideology which is now no more
relevant. The most intriguing thing about Marxs theories is that they are half practical and
half imaginary. Although many of his predictions have not come true, the fact that those who
have read his works have changed the world also cannot be denied. Even the worst critics
agree that Marxian theory provides an excellent framework for analysis of conflict and
change in modern society.

References
26

Ibid note 8

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Bottomore, T.B., Sociology: A Guide to Problems and Literature, Blackie and Sons
(India) Ltd., Mumbai, 1986.

Coser, Lewis, A., Masters of Sociological Thought, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New
York, 1979

Marx, Karl, Communist Manifesto, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1976.

Morrison, Ken, Marx, Durkheim, Weber: Formation of Modern Social Thought, Sage
Publications, London, 1995.

Ritzer, George, Sociological Theory, Tata-McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 1996.

Rao, C.N. Shankar, Sociology: Principles of Sociology with an introduction to Social

Thought, S. Chand, New Delhi, 2012

Gokhale, B.K., Political Science Theory and Governmental Machinery, Himalaya,

1972

Aron, Raymond, Main Currents in Sociological Thought, Transaction Publishers,

1998

Abraham, Francis & Morgan, John, H., Sociological Thought, Wyndham Hall Press,
1989

Hobsbawm, E. J. How to Change the World: Marx and Marxism.

David M. Trubek, Radical Theory and Programmatic Thought, American Journal of

Sociology 95, no. 2 (1989).

Samuel Moyn, The Politics of Economy, Ethics & International Affairs 16, no. 2
(2002).

David M. Trubek, Programmatic Thought and the Critique of the Social

Disciplines, in Critique and Construction, ed. M Perry (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1990).

Karl Marx: Critique of the Gotha Program (Marx/Engels Selected Works, Volume
Three.

Craig J. Calhoun (2002). Classical sociological theory. Wiley-Blackwell.

"Marx the millennium's 'greatest thinker'". BBC News World Online. 1 October 1999.

"Max Weber Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy".

Kenneth Allan (11 May 2010). The Social Lens: An Invitation to Social and
Sociological Theory. Pine Forge Press.

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