NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY, BHOPAL

SOCIOLOGY

FIRST TRIMESTER

PROJECT WORK

THEORY OF CLASS CONFLICT : WORKING CLASS AND

REVOLUTION

SUBMITTED BY : SUBMITTED TO : DR. BIR PAL SINGH

DHWANIT RATHOR

2019BALLB (HONS) 43

PIYUSH SONI

2019BALLB (HONS) 62

DIVYESH SHARMA

2019BALLB (HONS) 45

PRABHAV SHARMA

2019BALLB (HONS) 28
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM :
European industrialization in the 19th century transformed
societies, improved lifestyle of the people but also led to protest and
revolutionaries movements. In the 20th century as these societies developed
strikes and protests by the workers continued to take place. Why did
workers continued to protest even though societies became wealthier?

OBJECTIVES :
1. To analyze Karl Marx’s theory of class conflict.

2. To study the class structure in the society.

3. To understand the working class and how struggle and conflict aroused.

4. To analyze how tangible and non-tangible things evolved modes of

production and change in society in terms of changing material conditions.

5. To analyze different stages in which class conflict occurs.

HYPOTHESIS:

It appears that society is in a state of endless conflict due to high

competition for limited resources.

METHOD OF STUDY:
This research paper is based on doctrinal method of data
collection.
INTRODUCTION

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class

struggles.1”

The theory of class conflict, proposed by Karl Marx, claims society is in a

condition of interminable conflict as a result of competition for limited
assets. It states that the status and position of individuals in the society is
determined by the amount of participation of that individual in the
production process. A class is that unit of society where people share
common characteristics and interests; they are aware about those interests
and collectively act to fulfill them. To Marx, class consists of a group that
has interests differing from others. Different classes of people have
different interests. For e.g., a labor’s aim would be to have the maximum
about of wages whereas businessman would aim for the maximization of
profits, which lead to clash or contradiction within the system.

"A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are
likewise small, it satisfies all social requirements for a residence. But
let there arise next to the little house a palace, and the little house
shrinks to a hut2."

The theory of class conflict has been utilized to clarify a wide scope of
social phenomenon, including wars and unrests, riches and poverty,
discrimination and various forms of domestic violence. It attributes a large
portion of the major improvements in mankind's history, for example,
democracy and social liberties, to capitalistic endeavors to control the

1 Chapter 1 Bourgeois and Proletarians, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848).

2 Chapter 6, Wage and capital by Karl Marx (1849).

majority as opposed to a longing for social order. The theory spins around
ideas of social imbalance in the division of assets and spotlights on the
conflicts that exist between classes.

Marx's conflict theory centered on the conflict between two essential

classes i.e., bourgeoisie and proletariat. Each class comprises of a group of
individuals bound by shared interests and a level of property possession,
regularly bolstered by the state. The bourgeoisie are those individuals in
the society who hold most of the riches and means. The proletariat
incorporates the working class or the poor. Marx conjectured that the
bourgeoisie, a minority inside the populace, misuse their influence to
mistreat the proletariat.

ORIGIN

Karl Marx's class speculation gets from an extent of philosophical

perspectives including left Hegelianism, Scottish Empiricism, and
Anglo-French political-money related issues. Marx's point of view on class
started from a movement of individual interests relating to social
separation and human fight, whereby the game plan of class structure
relates to exceptional certain perception. Social man requires a social
overabundance, free endeavor basically makes this flood "private", and,
only an agitation subject to uniting a private man with his social self can
convey chance to alienated (private) animals under free venture. "At a
specific phase of their improvement, the material profitable powers of
society come in struggle with the current relations of creation, or – what is
nevertheless a lawful articulation for something very similar – with the
property relations inside which they have been grinding away up to this
point. From types of advancement of the profitable powers these relations
transform into their shackles.

Each particular method of creation had its misused classes and its decision
classes. What's more, every mode contributed, in its own particular
manner and for an unequivocal period, to the advancement of the
beneficial powers. The decision classes, by setting up the matchless quality
and development of their framework for their own egotistical advantages,
likewise managed a break with the old methods for working. In this sense
they assumed a truly dynamic job. Be that as it may, at specific focuses in
time, when the correct conditions met up, further mechanical and logical
leaps forward were made, opening the path for new, progressively
proficient methods for sorting out creation – however which were
definitely obliged by the current class relations that were extraordinarily
fit to a specific (presently old fashioned) monetary and social structure.
Now the dynamic character of the decision class was no more. At that point
starts an age of social upheaval.

Political-budgetary viewpoints furthermore added to Marx's theories,

concentrating on "wellspring of compensation" where society is
apportioned into three sub-get-togethers: Rentier, Capitalist, and Worker.
This improvement relies upon David Ricardo's theory of free undertaking.
Marx fortified this with a discussion over certain class connection.
Certainly, the beginning of a 'time of social change' does not by any mean
reason in a dynamic change beginning with one strategy for age then onto
the following. A rising social class needs to exist that can move the
condition on and challenge the class in power, and still, after all that "the
standard ruin of the battling classes" is reliably a likelihood. Thus, a
mechanical clarification of Marx's weight on age as the motor intensity of
history is uneven and wrong. As he formed elsewhere, "History sits
inactive, it 'has no gigantic wealth', and it 'pays no battles'. It is man,
certified, living man who does all that, who has and fights." The aftereffect
of a time of social surprise, consequently, depends upon the class fight.
Marx attempted to portray class as embedded in beneficial relations rather
than monetary prosperity. His political and financial thought made
towards an excitement for age instead of flow, and this from this time
forward transformed into a central subject in his concept of class.

Class Structure

According to the theory of Karl Marx, there are two major classes under the
capitalist mode of production. They are:-

1. The Bourgeoisie3
2. The Proletariat4

The bourgeoisie is the capitalist class as they where the owners of the
means of production in the society. While the other one is the larger class,
that is, the proletariat who are the working class in the society as they have
to contribute their labor power. As such, Marxist ideology states that there
is a state of inequality and a social disorder in the capitalist structure of
society. In this structure the bourgeoisie class is in a dominating position
with respect to the proletariat. And the dominating factor of the
bourgeoisie is the capital power. As the bourgeoisie become more
dominating, the proletariat is stripped from the basic means of production
for them. And this lead to a collective political action amongst the
proletariat which can turn out to be social revolution.

Marxist ideologists are of the opinion that there has been a war of classes

3 By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social
production and employers and wage labors.
4 By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their

own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live. [Engels, 1888 English edition].
between the controllers of production and the producers of that goods or
services in the society. It can also be regarded as a conflict between the
bourgeoisie class (capitalists) and the proletariat class (laborers). Thus in
capitalist system, the proletariat are being exploited by the bourgeoisie.
Marx himself pointed out that the proletariat has to come up and replace
the capitalist system with socialist system.

In addition to the two main classes discussed by Marx, he also discussed

some other classes in the society. The two important ones are:-

1. The Petty Bourgeoisie - This class mainly comprises of the middle

class structure of the society. This class structure mainly comprises
of artisan, merchants, small manufacturers etc. These people also
have to work for their livelihood as they also do not have much
capital of their own. They are also known as “smaller capitalists”.
2. The Lumpen Proletariat – This consists of the lowest strata of the
society. It consists mainly of beggars, criminals, prostitutes, and the
unemployed youth of the society. Marx considered them as the
“Dangerous class”. As this group is not capable of contributing for the
development of socialism.

And as we see the Marxist theory mainly critics the capitalist structure of
society for its division of the society in two main classes, that is, the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat. This theory points out that there is always
a stage of conflict among these two major classes in the society. So Marxist
ideology emphasis on creating a socialist society to avoid this conflict by
means of proper distribution of resources amongst the masses which can
lead to the welfare and betterment of society.

HISTORY OF BOURGEOISIE
Originally people who used to live in "borough5” referring to people who
have certain work with financial capital or work which related to upper
strata of society. People who used to belong to middle or upper strata of
class usually consisted of businessman merchant banker and
entrepreneurs.

In society due to bourgeoisie economic might they were able to employ

poor proletariat and exploit them because proletariat did not had
anywhere else to go so they were exploited as only resource that was of
proletariat that was their labor.

Due to bourgeoisie economic might they were able to control society and
suppress any sociopolitical challenges that were posed by proletariat. They
did anything to keep power in their own control and to maintain status
quo.

HISTORY OF PROLETARIAT

Proletariat word was originated from roman society where it was used as
“proletarii”. Where proletariat was a social class of poor roman citizen who
used to own little or no property.

Word was linked with “The census" which was conducted by authorities of
Rome once in every five years to produce a record which consisted record
of property, military duties and voting privileges of people of Rome. For
citizen who used to own property worth less or equal than 11,000 assēs
their record was recorded in official record of census of that lenticular year
but their children namely called "Proles" (from Latin prôlēs which used to
mean offsprings ) were listed.

5 a town or district which is an administrative unit.

Marx described a working class which did not have any ability to posses or
own any private property. Their only means to survive was to sell only
resource they had that was labor power for daily means of their survival.

According to Karl max “petite bourgeoisie” who were supposed to be better

payoff than their lower-class brethren. Petite bourgeoisie were who rely on
self-employment but their income was no different from ordinary or lower
than ordinary wage that was earned by Proletariat.

Proletarianization

The Marxist ideology suggests that Proletarianization is a social process in

which many people move from being an employer, unemployed or
self-employed, to be employed as wage labor for an employer. Under the
Marxist ideology this process is one of the aspects of accumulation of
capital resources. This is also seen as a major form of downward
mobilization of society. Marx points out in his various works that how this
process is a continuous one and how it affects the society in the capitalist
system. As in the general mode of production in a capitalist society, there is
a continuous accumulation of wealth amongst the capital class (the
bourgeoisie) of the society. So the major part of the wealth is concentrated
among them and this leads to the deprivation of wealth from the other
sections of the society. As wealth is concentrated among the capitalist class,
majority of the people have to accept the job as wage laborers for the
capitalists for their survival in the society.
Class Consciousness

The ides of class consciousness originates in the work of Karl Marx, who
said that it is necessary for the proletariats i.e., the working class to
consider itself as a group with shared interest with the goal to meet up and
topple the bourgeoisie i.e., the capitalist class and to take control of the
means of production in a revolution. In spite of the fact that Marx never
really termed the word ‘class consciousness’, he made a distinction
between “class in itself,” and “class for itself”. “Class in itself” is where
laborers just have a common relation to the means of production, and
“class for itself” where they seek to pursue common class interests.

In The Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx urged

laborers to join by advising them regarding their abuse by nineteenth
century capitalists who constrained them to bear terrible working
conditions, long working hours, and wages so low that numerous families
needed to send their kids to work to enhance the family salary. Marx and
Engels tell that proletarians confronted estrangement from both their work
and the world in general. The Communist Manifesto expresses that in light
of the fact that the prevailing classes control significant social
organizations like training and religion, they can shape social standards
and qualities with the goal that individuals from the proletariat will
censure themselves for their incidents. A person who accuses oneself will
neglect to perceive that others have similar issues and will neglect to see an
aggregate answer for them. Therefore, Marx and Engels believed that a
familiarity with the undeniably exploitative nature of private enterprise
would make class awareness unavoidable and that it would help laborers
around the globe to topple the bourgeoisie.
REVOLUTION

When people become aware of their non-human situation it is inevitable to

stop radical transformation. This revolution will be first step to the
establishment of communism6.

Instead of old bourgeoisie society with its classes and its antagonism there
shall be free development for all classes of society.

According to Karl max there are two types of revolution -

1. Final conflagration, a violent revolution supers sing the old condition of

production that happens between bourgeoisie and proletariat both carry
its own extreme point.

2. Permanent revolution involves a temper or coalition between proletariat

and bourgeoisie who rebelled against superficially united capitalist society.
Once its revolution is completed a proletariat authority is divided into
formation of new class middle class who have more power than proletariat
but less that bourgeoisie.

Marx left it ambiguous regarding destruction of capitalist society and what

will be result of general crises or the action of consensus proletariat or both
will beat once?

Assumptions of Conflict theory

6 Communism is an ideology of economic equality through the elimination of private property.

The beliefs of communism, most famously expressed by Karl Marx, center on the idea that
inequality and suffering result from capitalism.
There are basically four assumptions taken for the understanding of the
conflict theory. And they are:-

1. Competition – Many of the conflict theorists believe that one of the

most basic factors in societal interactions and human relationships is
the competition amongst the masses. It mainly exists in the society
because of the scarcity of resources, including both tangible goods
and intangible goods. Thus competition is the most general
assumption for conflict theory as it lies among the social order and
had become a major o part of the modern day developing society.
2. Revolution – As conflicts occur in the society one of the most possible
outcomes is a revolution, and that can be either social or political.
And the process of revolution is not a gradual one but it is more
abrupt in nature and also mainly at a large scale. So it becomes an
essential part of conflict in the society. And also as in Marxist
ideology we find that the method of revolution is proposed to
establish socialism in the society by replacing the communist society.
3. Structural Inequality – The main basis of structural inequality in the
society is the unequal distribution of power. And then a group of
society acquires more power that results in the suppression of the
other class of society. And thus a conflict occurs between the two
groups of the society formed from the unbalanced distribution of
power. Under the Marxist ideology, there has been a distribution of
power in society through the acquiring of means of production. The
two classes were formed, that is, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat,
which then create a state of conflict in society.
4. War – In the views of the conflict theorist, war is basically an
outcome of the cumulative and growing stage of conflict among the
people, groups, or the society as a whole. The war here referred to is
more of social in nature as to redistribute the power and wealth in
the society in an equitable manner. So as to balance the needs of the
 masses and distribution of wealth which can result in the proper
functioning of the state for the development and progress of the
people and the world at large.

CLASS CONFLICT

According to Karl Marx class conflict is a situation which arrives when

there is excessive of competition for limited number of resources when
rich or powerful class tries to fulfill its greed and use its power to gain
maximum of limited resources without caring about consequence of their
act or what it might cause changes in society due to their selfish nature and
poor and powerless class being powerless to do something about situation
are left to suffer for act of other.

Class conflict is a state when there is a tension between rich and powerful;
poor and powerless section of society. When rich feel that poor are rising
on status they try every means to control or oppress poor class of society.

Karl Marx’s Marxist theory of class conflict saw society divided on basics
of economics class where rich class of bourgeoisie compromises of King,
Queen, merchants, factory owner, mine owner , Mill owner etc. And poor
class of proletariat which mainly consist of working class who used to work
in the mills factories household of rich aristocratic bourgeoisie.

CAPTALIST AND CLASS CONFLICT

Capitalist is an economic system which has main characterized of “free

market” and absence or minimization of government interventions control
or balance of capitalist society is based on principle of “invisible hand “.

Capitalist system is solely based on profit making strategy or system

wholly run with utmost intent of making profit not welfare. Firms gains
monopoly power, increases price of necessity goods and exploit labor
working class they are paid low wages with long working hour and little
can be done on their condition due to availability of labor at large scale.

In capitalist system rich becomes richer and poor becomes poorer. Poor are
often considered as a resource of cheap labor with little economic security
when they are injured and laid off.

SOCIALISM AND CLASS CONFLICT7

Karl Marx said “a class is formed when its members achieve class
consciousness and solidarity". It happens when a class comes to notice it's
loopholes it's exploitation then it will take an action against those who are
exploiting lower classes. In sociologist all factors of production is owned by
state so all factories mines machines are capital owned and are wholly in
control of state. All citizen get benefit from production of goods and
services on basis of equal rights.

APPLICATION OF CONFLICT THEORY IN REAL LIFE

1. Government's try to manage class conflict between different classes of

society by relocation of resources between bourgeoisie and proletariat.

2. Government takes resources from who have more than ordinate by

progressive taxation and give them to who have less than ordinate with

7 Marxism and class analysis [Andre beteille, 2007]

tariff or various schemes, incentives like minimum wages for poor class
and special program and social assistance.

If rich gets richer and poor gets poorer, gap between have and have not
will widen that will lead to social unrest in society poor will involve in
crime or they would protest, movement unrest in society if situation
worsens it could lead to civil war between classes for their survival.

CONCLUSION

Karl Marx was indeed way ahead of his time was a true student of
sociology he saw what other people tend to ignore asked question and then
researched on his theory, refined it and presented a answer why there is
tension between races went inside the problem and found out an answer
that due to lack of resources powerful people or bourgeoisie try to feed
their greed exploited people who were below them didn't cared about them
all because of economic differences and poor people or proletariat were
unknown of whole situation but when they collected their conciseness they
revolted and this conflict between classes was all because of money . He
failed to see that there are more than economic element is the only
determining than he is seeing with biased opinion on his part there are
more than one element that determines conflict in society example can be
opinion on one particular subject can also lead to conflict in society. We
student of sociology that Marx proposition that economic is THE factor is
wrong there are many more factors.

Karl Marx view that society is always in conflict also does not explain that
why there is bond in society why there is sense of camaraderie in the
society or why people always stay together this undermines Karl Marx
statement. Karl Marx only presented view of European society but word
society consist Asiatic society also where Karl Marx failed to answer his
class conflict proposition. In the end Karl Marx described one of the views
of society which may please or displease some but it is indeed accepted that
class conflict answers some of the most burning questions.