politics quiz: Scientific socialism Flashcards
(11 cards)
who were the two people who brought scientific socialism into play?
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
what was Marx and Engels critique of capitalism?
- Principled critique of capitalism and explained why capitalism would destroy itself.
What does capitalism end up creating?
tremendous socio-economic inequalities
What are the 2 social classes that capitalism reduces society to?
- Bourgeoisie
- Proletariat
Define Bourgeoisie
Minority made up of the wealthy - those who owned means of production.
Define Proletariat
Majority group, made up of the industrial working class. - owned nothing of value but their own labour.
Define how capitalism goes through cycles and how it comes to a stop
- there are periods of growth (booms) followed by collapse (bust)
- each collapse would destroy wealth and would result in the ranks of the proletariat growing.
- these cycles would continue until the proletariat experience “class consciousness”
Define what class consciousness is, in regards to the proletariat
- up until now, proletariat conceive themselves as individuals working to get ahead.
- Class consciousness is the realization among the proletariat that they form an oppressed, exploited class in society.
Once class consciousness happens, 2 paths are open to the proletariat, why are they?
- Evolutionary path
- Revolution path
Define the evolutionary path
- In democratic states workers will create political parties to represent their interests.
- Ultimately, They will win power and implement socialism.
define the revolutionary path
- in non-democratic states, workers would organize in secret, to overthrow the system, using violence
- If successful, a dictatorship of the proletariat would be established.
- Once power is secure, the dictatorship is replaced by some other form of gout. and socialism is introduced.
