Marx stages of economic development. Marx’s Theory of Capitalist Development 2022-10-13

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Karl Marx was a German philosopher and economist who is best known for his ideas about capitalism and communism. Marx believed that history was driven by conflicts between different classes, and that societies progress through a series of stages of economic development. In this essay, we will explore Marx's theory of economic development and how it has influenced modern thought.

Marx's theory of economic development is based on the idea that societies progress through a series of stages, each of which is characterized by a different mode of production. According to Marx, the mode of production refers to the way in which a society produces and distributes goods and services.

The first stage of economic development, according to Marx, is the primitive communist stage. In this stage, people live in small, egalitarian communities where there is little division of labor and no private property. Everyone works together to meet the needs of the community, and resources are shared equally.

The next stage of economic development is the slave society. In this stage, a small group of people, known as the ruling class, own the means of production and use slave labor to produce goods and services. The ruling class lives in luxury, while the slaves are exploited and oppressed.

The third stage of economic development is the feudal society. In this stage, the ruling class consists of feudal lords who own land and serfs who work the land. The feudal lords have political and economic power, while the serfs are forced to work the land and pay rent to the lords.

The fourth stage of economic development is the capitalist society. In this stage, the means of production are owned by capitalists who use wage labor to produce goods and services. The capitalists make profits by selling the goods and services at a higher price than it cost to produce them, while the workers are paid a wage for their labor.

Finally, Marx believed that society would progress to a communist stage, in which the means of production are owned collectively by the entire society and there is no class system or exploitation.

Marx's theory of economic development has had a significant influence on modern thought. Many people, particularly those on the left of the political spectrum, have embraced his ideas about capitalism and the need for a more equal society. However, his theory has also been criticized for being overly deterministic and for failing to account for the many variations and complexities of human societies.

In conclusion, Marx's theory of economic development suggests that societies progress through a series of stages, each of which is characterized by a different mode of production. While his ideas have had a significant impact on modern thought, they have also been the subject of criticism.

What are the stages of Marxism?

marx stages of economic development

In the modern terminology we can say that Marx was of the view that as more capital is accumulated and capital-output ratio rises in the productive processes or, in other words, as more capital-intensive production techniques are employed, the rate of profit will fall. In fact, as explained above, Marx visualised the accumulation of new capital goods i. Capitalists cannot realise surplus value from consumer goods, however because the consumer market is increasingly one of unemployed workers. The theory asserts that class struggle is mainly due to the outcome of surplus value, which in most cases is in the possession of a number of few capitalists in the society. As a result of these conflicts, the society faces many challenges, leading to low development levels. This decreased the importance of land. As the material basis of class divisions is dissolved, class differences will gradually disappear, and with them the need for the state as an instrument of class rule and as a distinct coercive force.

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Marx’s Theory of Economic Development (Criticism)

marx stages of economic development

With further inventions and development of science and technology, the machines became bigger and more sophisticated. Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict as well as a dialectical perspective to view social transformation. The socio-economic and political conditions are regarded by him as reflective of the forces of production. As a result, in absolute terms the living conditions of the workers have greatly improved so that they have now become less revolutionary. The workers tend to become more prosperous with capitalist development and the middle class instead of disappearing, has emerged as dominant class. He is held in high esteem and is respected as a real prophet by the millions of people.

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Karl Marx Theory of Economic Development

marx stages of economic development

Secondly, the surplus value or rate of exploitation may be raised by increasing the intensity of labour that is, forcing the workers to do greater amount of work while keeping the working day constant. The primitive man who till now was in the possession of the most basic tools now possessed the means to conduct farming , handicrafts and tillage, and a division of labor between these branches of production. This ensured a higher rate of capital formation and industrial growth in the Western European countries. Finally, we shall look briefly at the evolution of Marxist thought and Communist policy, from Lenin forward; and draw some conclusions. The mode of prod determines the economic, social and political super-structure of society. In the 1960s, American economist called W.

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Marxism: Different Stages of History

marx stages of economic development

According to him, the root cause of a reserve army was the introduction of technological improvements or the slow pace of capital accumulation. Thus, Professor Patterson remarks. In conformity with the change and development of the productive forces of society in the course of history and men's relations of production, their economic relations also changed and developed. Organic composition of capital is the ratio of constant capital C to the total capital C + V. ADVERTISEMENTS: iv Technology does not Create Unemployment: Marx contended that with the introduction of technology, industrial reserve army expands. Thus when labour theory of value is wrong, the theory of surplus value and exploitation based upon it falls to the ground. Slave Phase The primitive phase was followed by the Slave Stage which is based on the theory that under this system, the slave-owner owns the means of production and the workers in the production chain.

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[PDF Notes] The theory of stages of economic development given by Karl Marx 2023

marx stages of economic development

Why do Wages Remain at the Subsistence Level— Marxist View: ADVERTISEMENTS: According to Marx, the forces at work in a capitalist economic system bring about the increase in the rate of exploitation of labour. The other basic assumption of Marx and Ricardo is that supply curve of labour to the modern industrial sector is perfectly elastic at the minimum subsistence level. The relations pattern of production shows the various class structures of a society that determine their production output Scheiber, 28. It is closely related to Marx argued that if value is a property common to all commodities, then whatever it is derived from, whatever determines it, must be common to all commodities. In developing countries where trade movement is weak, labour is ruthlessly exploited.

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Marx’s Theory of Capitalist Development

marx stages of economic development

Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical. However, Marxian theory of capital accumulation is not of the type of capital widening in which investment is made in the same type of capital goods. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977. All the communist states had been poor and are even now so, as compared to capitalist countries. It is through the ownership of material means of production that the capitalists are able to exploit the labour class and extract surplus value from it.

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Marxian Theory of Economic Development

marx stages of economic development

Man does not live by bread only, other things are also necessary. A commodity's use-value is its usefulness for fulfilling some practical purpose; for example, the use-value of a piece of food is that it provides nourishment and pleasurable taste; the use value of a hammer, that it can drive nails. Thirdly, the total value of output contains the surplus value which is created by the labourers over and above the value of their labour power and which, as seen above, is bagged by the capitalist class as profits. But high level of production is possible through more and more capital accumulation and technological improvement. Thus as capital accumulated from the creation of surplus value in production, capitalists in competition with each other would normally re-invest more of that surplus-value into constant capital as machinery than into variable capital i. Therefore, for proper development to be realized in these countries, the above challenges must be confronted through proper policies and procedures Vidal, 560. However, most of the global South countries have abundant natural resources but they do not have the ability and capacity to use them effectively; hence, they remain underdeveloped while the European countries continue to develop steadily Tătulescu, 75.

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Marxist Theory of Development

marx stages of economic development

Firstly, it consists of the value of the capital and raw materials consumed in the production of goods and services. This raises, in Marxian terms, the organic composition of capital, which in modern terminology means capital-labour ratio. In some cases significant success in the growth of industrial production has been recorded. The realisation crisis also is based in the inevitable increase in the organic composition of capital. But this is not correct. In contrast, the level of this potential is highly developed in case of capitalist production. This form of contradiction leads to under-consumption or what is also called over-production, that is, lack of demand for goods which, according to Marx, causes periodic depressions and economic crises.


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