Manifesto of the Communist Party Term Paper

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Karl Marx and wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1847 for the Communist League of London. In this Manifesto, Marx first applied his ideas of historical materialism, which he developed in 1846 in The German Ideology.

The Manifesto of the Communist Party describes the emergence of capitalism, and the social classes that develop due to this method of production. According to Marx, capitalism emerges from the context of feudal society. "The feudal system of industry, under which industrial production was monopolized by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took its place p. 474)."

Marx goes into detail about the historical events that led to the state of modern industry. He writes, "The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires,... The modern bourgeoisie (p. 480)." He explains the transition from feudalism to capitalism by stating that various classes in society often opposed interests over the direction of change, and this class struggle alters the mode of production. Thus, this class conflict is eternal but often hidden. "The history of hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave,... lord and serf... In a word oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight (p. 473)."

Marx believed that the mode of production is key to defining the social classes in any society.

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"We see therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of evolution in the modes of production and exchange (p. 474)." Due to the fact that the bourgeoisie emerges from the capitalist mode, and ultimately influences its direction, this class has the power to influence the political, legal and ideological course of any civil society. According to Marx, "the bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society (p. 476)."

Marx and Engles believed that the bourgeoisie class turns all social relations into money relations. Thus is evident in their book. The bourgeoisie class has the power to alter legal relations of society. For example, they may ease legal restrictions on land or set up private property in order to support capitalism. According to Marx, the bourgeoisie class "resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- free trade (p. 475)."

As a result of capitalist societies, Marx and Engels stated that the working class is left with poor living conditions and low pay, as the capitalist mode of production provides them bargaining power in the marketplace. The bourgeoisie class, thus, treats the workers like commodities, paying them only enough to live. According to Marx: "hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted,.....

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The Communist Manifesto Summary

The Communist Manifesto The central aspect of the Manifesto of the communist party is how to effectively handle the ever increasing rift between the contending classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The development of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the proletariat has highly been exacerbated by the industrialization and trade development over the years, the various revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange. The bourgeoisie has played the bigger role in the revolutions that have shaped the system to its favor, turning the physicians, the lawyers, the priest, the poet, the man of science into… Continue Reading...

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