Marx and Weber in Perpetuating Capitalism

The analysis of capitalism allows a researcher to learn a great deal about the different ideologies from countless sources based on experiences though time in many different countries. Two great theorists Karl Marx and Max Weber both have a scope on capitalism and what perpetuates it through which their own experiences and ideas appear. The ideology of capitalism between these two caries within it certain similarities, but while Marx strongly opposed capitalism and expected a revolution, Weber establishes a different look into structure and saw a better system where to perpetuate bureaucracy and capitalism are the pillar of efficiency.

Karl Mark, although unpublished in his lifetime has come to provide key insights into the critique of capitalism where alienation is the main focus. The concept of superstructure is his basis for a capitalist society. Marx's writings and his ideologies dominated a particular era. He believed everything that people say, imagine and conceive, included in such things as politics, laws, morality and religion were all crucial to the superstructure. The superstructure that Marx writes of is broken into two distinct social classes: the proletariat and the bourgeois. Those who own the means of production and controlling power, or the bourgeois, work together to rule the institutions in society that govern civil life and the economy, and by doing so, perpetuate capitalism.

According to Marx, wealth is created by the proletariat which are known as the working class, the creators of commodity and ruled by the bourgeois ideology. Although this class creates the wealth, they are not appropriated the wealth, but rather the bourgeois class who maintains ownership and is in charge of the wealth in the form of profits. The proletariat is a class of laborers who only live as long as they can find work, and are only able to work as long as they create a profit for the capitalist class. The bourgeois makes the rules and own the means of production, and work to continue their control and therefore perpetuate capitalism.

Marx always foresaw a revolution from the proletariat to make a stand against the bourgeois. One of the main reasons why the working class never actually revolted against the capitalist class is because they have been controlled to see the social world in a specific way. The bourgeois had the power and control to influence the way the working class views institutions leading them to believe that they are fair and embracing freedom.

Another point Marx makes is that the working class has been victimized by the belief of "false consciousness." This is a state of mind that prevents the working class from realizing that they are being exploited and are merely a class of themselves, not for themselves.

Marx intended to produce in the proletariat a state of "class consciousness" where the workers would become aware of their exploitation and ultimately revolt against the upper class, but Marx's prediction never materialized. As a result, it has been determined that there is a certain level of comfort within the working class in attaining the bare necessities in life and that there is no realization of the fact that they are making the rich richer as opposed to helping themselves attain more power. Therefore, through false consciousness and the lack of class consciousness, the bourgeois was able to perpetuate capitalism.

Max Weber