Karl Marx and Max Weber

-Karl Marx and Max Weber-

Views on social order

Written by Timea Borde

People live in societies, and these societies are structured, and the members of them can be in a more privileged or in a disadvantageous position. The study of the social order is in a strong correlation with the problem of equality. Between the individuals that form the society, there is a constant relationship, and particular individuals have different positions, and these social positions are not equal.

Karl Marx and Max Weber have different opinions regarding the social structures. While Marx was concentrating on the highly spread conflicts within the society, and the sustenance of the social order, Weber recognized the conflicts within the society, but he was more interested in the social changes.

Karl Marx was born in Trier, in the Kingdom of Prussia into a Jewish family. He was a 19th century philosopher, political economist and revolutionary, who gave socialism a scientific foundation. From a very young age, he participated in some political activities and he addressed a variety of social concerns. Marx was a relatively undistinguished figure in his lifetime, his philosophies, which later came to be known as ‘Marxism’, began to wield a major impact on workers’ movements shortly after his death. 

Karl Marx’s one of the most important sociological thought was based on the study of capitalism, and the revealing of the contradictions within this system. He believed in the mandatory collapse of the capitalist system and the settling in of the socialist system. His theory was, that in a capitalist system, the capitalists exploited the working class, although they are free, but for their livelihood they must work for the capitalists. He thought that in the socialist system the earnings must be allocated in proportion to the work performed, and the means of production must be in a social ownership.

From his point of view societies are constructed on classes. A class is the group of individuals who are in the same position regarding the means of production. He formed a two-class model (exploiter=capitalist and exploited=laborer), but beside that, in some of his analyzes he discusses a much deeper issue of the classes. Sociology today is still affected by one thesis, which states that conflicts are the essence of human societies and the driving force behind their development. Strongest form of it is the revolution, which was considered by Marx a positive event, he considered that this is the way of implementing a new social formation.

„The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.”(Marx, K. and Engels, F. 1848. The Communist Manifesto).

Marx’s whole philosophy and his social science work is based on the idea, that the economy is the driving force of the history. He states that politics, science, art, religion are just the outworks of the economic conditions. Ideas brought forward social development. According to him, the economic base is composed of two parts: the productive force, which is the technology, manpower and the relations of production, which are the power and legal conditions(„Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth - the soil and the labourer.„ Marx, K. Vol. I, Ch. 15, pg. 556 - Das Kapital). The consequences of this theory is that just scientist who belong to or who are joining the working class are capable of understanding the social laws, because they are driven by another kind of interests than the scientists who belong to the bourgeois class.

„Marx's ideas have had a profound impact on world politics and intellectual thought.”(Kenneth Allan, 11 May 2010, The Social Lens: An Investigation to Social and Sociological Theory, Pine Forge Press, pg. 68). From an academic perspective, Marx's work contributed to the birth of modern sociology, considered one of the three principal architects of modern social science along with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber.  

Karl Emil Maximilian Weber was a German sociologist, jurist, philosopher and politicl economist whose ideas influenced social theory and social research. Weber’s main intellectual concern was understanding the process of rationalisation and secularisation that he associated with the rise of capitalism.

Max Weber reacted to Marx’s thoughts, he acknowledged the widespead nature of conflicts but he was more intrested in the social changes. He payed great attention to politics as a power („Politics means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.” Weber, M. ). He distingushed power, which is based on the threath of physical force, from the reign, which is based on the conviction of the members of the society, namely the government is legitimate. He differentiated between three types of legitimacy: traditional (ex.: king), charismatic (ex.: rinfleader) or rational (ex.: based on elections). He saw rationality as the  modern economic, social and political progression force. The rationalization manifested itself in the economic, social and political organizations as of bureaucratization. He saw bureaucracy, asfollowing: organizations addressed issues according to the rules, bureaucrats had an exact division of labor between them, and they are chosen acordingly to their knowledge on the basis of clearly defned criteria. Therefore the operation of bureaucracy is predictable. He sees the bureaucratic rationalization as the essence of the modern economic, social and political changes. Weber, in contradiction with his contemporary socilogists, rejected positivism, as a science concept. He analyzes the social changes, but does not advertises them as they help the society to evolve in a better one.