Mass Society and Marxist Theory
Mass Society Economic Theories
Liberalism, with its origins in the writings
of John Locke, favored Enlightenment
principles of personal liberty and free
trade.
 Liberalism was strongest among the
growing middle class who favored the
social and economic changes produced by
industrialization.

Mass Society Economic Theories
Since the early 17th century, European
statesmen and economists had agreed that
a rising population was a sign of prosperity.
 It was commonly believed that Kings
should try to increase the number of their
subjects because this would provide more
taxpayers and soldiers, and that a bigger
population was an indication of a vibrant
economy.

Mass Society Economic Theories

Late 18th-early 19th
century British
clergyman and
economist Thomas
Malthus (1766-1834)
saw the effects of the
British population
explosion and
industrialization and
was horrified.
Mass Society Economic Theories
Malthus’ vision was the murderous
competition of mankind over arable land and
food, with the poor (the largest % of the
population) suffering the most (the
Malthusian theory).
 Malthus saw overcrowded slums, pollution,
disease, unemployment, hunger…the misery
of the masses as unavoidable consequences
of industrialization because the population
was growing faster than the food supply.

Mass Society Economic Theories
Malthus believed the only checks on
population growth were nature’s “natural”
methods: sexual abstinence, wars,
disease, famine.
 His bleak view caused him to urge poor
families to have fewer children, he
discouraged charities from helping the
poor, and he didn’t think the poor should
get vaccinations.

Mass Society Economic Theories

Another British
economist, David
Ricardo (1772-1823),
believed that wage
increases during
industrialization were
futile because the
increases would only
cover the cost of
necessities.
Mass Society Economic Theories
He believed that when wages were high,
people would have more children,
lowering their standard of living.
 Both Malthus and Ricardo opposed
government help for the poor.

Mass Society Economic Theories
They believed the best cure for poverty
was not government relief but the
unrestricted “laws of the free market.”
 They believed in the ideas of middle class
liberalism (often referred to as the
Protestant Work Ethic): individuals should
improve their situation through hard work,
thrift, and limiting the size of their
families.

Mass Society Economic Theories
In 1800, British philosopher
and economist Jeremy
Bentham (1748-1832)
advocated the idea that the
goal of society should be the
“greatest happiness for the
greatest number” of its
citizens.
 All laws or actions should be
judged by their usefulness
or “utility.”

Mass Society Economic Theories
All actions (from a person, company, or
government) are utilitarian if they produce
more pleasure and happiness or prevent pain
or unhappiness.
 Bentham strongly believed in liberalism (which
guaranteed personal happiness through
personal choice and freedom) but he saw the
need for the government to get involved in
the economy under certain circumstances.

Mass Society Economic Theories

Bentham, like most
British liberals,
wanted the
government to
deregulate trade,
maintain the value of
the currency, enforce
contracts, and finance
the military and
railroads.
Mass Society Economic Theories
Bentham was among the first to propose
that prisons should rehabilitate rather than
merely punish, that the poor should be
“managed.”
 Bentham’s ideas of limited governmental
social involvement led to the ideas of
another influential British philosopher and
economist…John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).

Mass Society Economic Theories

Mill believed in
personal freedoms,
but building on
Bentham’s ideas, Mill
wanted the
government to step
in to improve the
hard lives of the
working class.
Mass Society Economic Theories
Mill believed that even though middleclass business and factory owners were
entitled to increase their own happiness,
the government should prevent them from
doing so in a manner that would harm the
workers.
 In other words, they should not exploit
the working class.

Mass Society Economic Theories
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): sometimes
referred to as the second founder of
sociology…grew up in England during the
Industrial Revolution.
 Spencer believed (and greatly promoted) the
idea that no one or no government should
intervene in society’s evolution.

Mass Society Economic Theories
Spencer believed that societies evolve from
lower (barbarian) to higher (civilized)
forms.
 As generations pass, the most capable and
intelligent (the “fittest”) members of society
survive, while the less capable die out. So
over time, societies improved.
 Spencer believed that if you helped the
lower classes, you interfere with this
“natural” process.

Mass Society Economic Theories
Spencer theorized that the “fittest”
members would produce a more advanced
society—unless misguided do-gooders got
in the way and helped those who were
less fit to survive.
 Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” idea is
usually attributed to Darwin, which is why
it became known as social Darwinism.

Socialist Thought Emerges
As a reaction to the growing gulf between
wealth and poverty (primarily in Britain and
Germany), some middle-class, reformminded intellectuals began to condemn
industrial capitalism.
 To end the growing poverty of the masses,
they offered a radical solution… socialism.

Socialist Thought Emerges
Socialists deplored economic inequalities,
as represented by the vast difference in
wealth between a captain of industry and
a factory laborer.
 They condemned the system that
permitted the exploitation of laborers,
especially women and children.

Socialist Thought Emerges

Early socialists wanted to expand the
Enlightenment understanding of equality:
they understood equality to have an
economic as well as a political, legal, and
social dimension, and they looked to the
future establishment of a just and
equitable society.
Socialist Thought Emerges
By the 1840’s socialists considered
liberalism inadequate to deal with the
class inequalities caused and perpetuated
by industrialization.
 Socialists believed liberalism only
benefited the middle-class so they wanted
to reorganize society and recreate it based
on cooperation, not competition.

Socialist Thought Emerges
Under socialism, the people as a whole
(rather than the wealthy few) would own
and operate the means of production (the
farms, factories, railways, and other large
businesses that produced and distributed
goods).
 Some early socialists established
communities where all work was shared
and all property was owned in common.

Socialist Thought Emerges
These early socialists
were called Utopians
(implying that they
were impractical
dreamers).
 When there was no
difference between
rich and poor, they
believed most human
conflict and misery
would end.


Robert Owen
Socialist Thought Emerges
The Utopian Robert
Owen (1771-1858)
set up a model
community in New
Lanark, Scotland to
put his ideas into
practice.
 Between 1815 and
1825, over 20,000
people visited New
Lanark to study
Owen’s reforms.

Socialist Thought Emerges
Owen was a successful mill owner (who
was poor growing up). Unlike most
industrialists of the day, he refused to use
child labor.
 Owen pressed the British government for
laws that limited child labor, reforms in
working hours, education, and he
encouraged the organization of labor
unions.

Socialist Thought Emerges
Owen believed that the conditions which
people lived in shaped their character.
 He reduced working hours (10, instead of
12-17 in other factories), built homes for
his workers, started a school for children
of the workers, and opened a company
store where workers could buy food and
clothes at fair prices.
 Owen showed that an employer could
make a profit while treating workers with
respect and dignity.

Socialist Thought Emerges
At New Lanark, Owen had Jeremy Bentham as
a partner.
 Education for the worker’s children included a
nursery school, among the first in Great Britain.
 In 1825, Owen left New Lanark to start a new
cooperative agricultural community in New
Harmony, Indiana.
 When this community failed, Owen returned to
Britain to help establish the trade union
movement, another important legacy.

Socialist Thought Emerges
The ideas of the Utopian socialists (like
Owen) resonated widely in the nineteenth
century, and their followers established
utopian communities from eastern Europe
to the United States.
 But most of these communities failed, so
the socialists turned to the large-scale
organization of working people as the best
means to bring about a just and equitable
society.

Socialist Thought Emerges
In the 1840’s, the German philosopher and
historian Karl Marx (1818-1883) condemned
the ideas of the Utopians as unrealistic.
 He developed a new theory called “scientific
socialism” which was based on the scientific
method in its study of history.

Marxist Theory

Made its first appearance in
1848 with the publication
of the Communist
Manifesto.

Written by Marx and
Friedrich Engels, another
19th century German
intellectual, philosopher
and socialist, the Manifesto
is considered to be the
most important political
document of the 19th
century.
Marxist Theory

Marxism as an
intellectual theory is
persuasive because it is
egalitarian (meaning
advocating full political
and social equality); the
Manifesto was an
indictment of the awful
living and working
conditions caused by the
Industrial Revolution.
Marxist Theory

The Manifesto held that
capitalism divided people
into two main classes,
each with its own
economic interests and
social status: the
capitalists or
bourgeoisie, who owned
the industrial machinery
and factories (the “means
of production”)
Marxist Theory

And the
proletariat, who
were the
wageworkers, who
only had their labor
to sell to the
capitalistic owning
class in order to
stay alive.

Marxist Theory

The Manifesto was a call for the workers (the
proletariat ) to rise up against those awful
conditions and those who oppress them (the
bourgeoisie).
Marxist Theory
 Marxist theory held that since the beginning
of time, economic conditions and institutions
of private property have been the driving
force of history (i.e. greed has driven people
to do what they’ve done).
 In sociology, this created what’s known as
the Conflict Theory.
 Private property gave rise to rival economic
classes (the haves vs. the have-nots). In
general, the exploiting owning class and the
oppressed laboring class develop.
Marxist Theory
Marxist theory stated that this new
capitalistic/industrial system was
destructively competitive. As it spreads
and intensifies, more will fall into the
proletariat and there will be fewer
bourgeoisie (the Wal-Mart syndrome).
 Eventually the proletariat would rise up
and overthrow the few bourgeoisie that
were left (creating the revolution).

Marxist Theory
Communist
Manifesto ended
 The
with a call for
workers to unite—
creating a
Communist
Revolution.
Marxist Theory

In this revolution,
they would be led by
the vanguard of
the proletariat, the
intellectual leadership
of those who
understood the
workings of world
history.
Marxist Theory
Right after the revolution, a dictatorship
of the proletariat would emerge for a
short period of autocratic power to ensure
that the revolution would stick.
 The theory proposed that the state would
eventually wither away and there would
be no need to protect class differences (or
national borders) since there would be
none.

Marxist Theory
 The
revolution would abolish private
property.
 Everything (i.e. all property) would
belong to the state.
 This would end all the divisions
between economic classes (the Robin
Hood Effect-no more haves/have nots).
 Humanity would now live in peace and
cooperative harmony.
Marxist Theory
 Religion
(Marx called it “the opiate of
the people”) and the state would
disappear since both institutions were
developed by their own classes in the
past to protect their interests and
keep the exploited classes down.
 The goal was to have a freer, more
equal world where each person would
contribute what they had and get
what they need.
Marxist Theory
 What
would replace the state was never
made very clear…Marx was more
concerned with the revolution than
what would happen after it occurred.
 This vision is what led to the great
political revolutions of the 20th century:
the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and
the Chinese Revolution of 1949 (and
the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and
several others).
Marxist Theory
In the 1860’s, Marx’s vision led German
socialists to create “social democracy.”
 This was a gradual shift from a capitalistic
system to a more socialistic one (rather than
the violent overthrowing that Marx predicted).
 Many countries (including our own) practice
some form of social democracy.
 True or absolute Marxism though, has been a
failure. The Soviet Union, China, North Korea,
Cuba, and others perverted Marx’s ideas.

Marxist Theory