Glossary of Terms: Bo Bonapartism First used in reference to the government established by Louis Bonaparte, who had been elected to the office of presidency in 1848. Three years following, on 2 December, 1851, he staged a coup d'etat against his government, setting up a military dictatorship in its place. Marx soon after wrote a popular pamphlet called the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte "demonstrating how the class struggle in France created circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero's part." Bonapartism has been used to describe a government that forms when class rule is not secure and a military, police, and state bureaucracy intervenes to establish order. Further readings: Trotsky, The Rise of Hitler and Destruction of the German Left; and The Workers' State, Thermidor and Bonapartism. Bourgeoisie The class of people in bourgeois society who own the social means of production as their Private Property, i.e., as capital. Bourgeois Democracy V.I.
Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Six Karl Marx. Capital Volume One Chapter Six: The Buying and Selling of Labour-Power The change of value that occurs in the case of money intended to be converted into capital, cannot take place in the money itself, since in its function of means of purchase and of payment, it does no more than realise the price of the commodity it buys or pays for; and, as hard cash, it is value petrified, never varying. [1] Just as little can it originate in the second act of circulation, the re-sale of the commodity, which does no more than transform the article from its bodily form back again into its money-form. By labour-power or capacity for labour is to be understood the aggregate of those mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a use-value of any description. But in order that our owner of money may be able to find labour-power offered for sale as a commodity, various conditions must first be fulfilled. The owner of labour-power is mortal.
Bourgeoisie The prototypical bourgeois: Monsieur Jourdain, the protagonist of the play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), by Molière, is the best would-be nobleman that money can buy. In Marxist philosophy, the term bourgeoisie denotes the social class who owns the means of production and whose societal concerns are the value of property and the preservation of capital, in order to ensure the perpetuation of their economic supremacy in society.[3] Joseph Schumpeter instead saw the creation of new bourgeoisie as the driving force behind the capitalist engine, particularly entrepreneurs who took risks in order to bring innovation to industries and the economy through the process of creative destruction.[4] Etymology[edit] The 16th-century German banker Jakob Fugger and his principal accountant, M. Schwarz, registering an entry to a ledger. History[edit] Denotations[edit] The Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie[edit] Nomenclatura[edit] In France and French-speaking countries[edit]
Proletariat The proletariat (/ˌproʊlɪˈtɛəriːət/ from Latin proletarius) is a term used to describe the class of wage-earners (especially industrial workers) in a capitalist society whose only possession of significant material value is their labour-power (their ability to work);[1] a member of such a class is a proletarian. Usage in Roman law[edit] As defined in the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the proletarii constituted a social class of Roman citizens owning little or no property. Although included in one of the five support centuriae of the Comitia Centuriata, proletarii were largely deprived of their voting rights due to their low social status caused by their lack of "even the minimum property required for the lowest class"[4] and a class-based hierarchy of the Comitia Centuriata. Usage in Marxist theory[edit] A 1911 Industrial Worker publication advocating industrial unionism based on a critique of capitalism. See also[edit] Reference notes[edit] Further reading[edit] External links[edit]
Dictatorship of the proletariat In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a state in which the proletariat, or the working class, has control of political power.[1][2][3] The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the 19th century. It was expected that the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie) would use military force to remain in power whenever the proletariat attempted to replace it, and therefore the proletariat would have to respond with violence of its own.[4][5] Both Marx and Engels argued that the short-lived Paris Commune, which ran the French capital for three months before being repressed, was an example of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the 20th century, the October Revolution in Russia overthrew the provisional government and initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, which would become a founding member of the Soviet Union Theoretical approaches[edit]
Class conflict Class conflict, frequently referred to as class warfare or class struggle, is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests and desires between people of different classes. The view that the class struggle provides the lever for radical social change for the majority is central to the work of Karl Marx and the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. However, the discovery of the existence of class struggle is not the product of their theories; their theories can instead be seen as a response to the existence of class struggles. Usage In the past the term Class conflict was a term used mostly by socialists, who define a class by its relationship to the means of production — such as factories, land and machinery. From this point of view, the social control of production and labor is a contest between classes, and the division of these resources necessarily involves conflict and inflicts harm. Pre-capitalist societies 21st Century USA Capitalist societies
Dialectic Dialectic (also dialectics and the dialectical method) is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to European and Indian philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues. The dialectical method is discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject, who wish to establish the truth of the matter guided by reasoned arguments.[1] The term dialectics is not synonymous with the term debate. While in theory debaters are not necessarily emotionally invested in their point of view, in practice debaters frequently display an emotional commitment that may cloud rational judgement. Debates are won through a combination of persuading the opponent; proving one's argument correct; or proving the opponent's argument incorrect. The Sophists taught aretē (Greek: ἀρετή, quality, excellence) as the highest value, and the determinant of one's actions in life.
Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism is a political ideology combining Marxism (the scientific socialist concepts theorised by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels) and Leninism (Vladimir Lenin's theoretical expansions of Marxism which include anti-imperialism, democratic centralism, and Vanguardist party-building principles).[1] Marxism–Leninism was the official ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and of the Communist International (1919–43), making it the guiding ideology of the world communist movement. As such, it is the most prominent ideology associated with communism. The ultimate goal of Marxism–Leninism is the development of socialism into the full realisation of communism, a classless social system with common ownership of the means of production and with full social equality of all members of society. The phrase "Marxism–Leninism" was introduced by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s to distinguish the new synthesis of Marxism with the theories of Lenin. Values Etymology Historical Current usage