Karl Marx (1818–1883)

This chapter examines the theories of Karl Marx, particularly, labour theory of value, theory of surplus value (or exploitation), theory of accumulation, theory of distribution, theory of alienation, theory of crisis, theory of historical materialism and theory of class struggle. Marx, basing himself on Ricardo’s labour theory of value, explained how exploitation in the system occurs. For Marx, labour was a commodity that produced more value than its cost of production, and this was the source of surplus value or exploitation in capitalism. While Marx spent much time discussing capitalism and its contradictions, he said very little about socialism, or how it would be implemented after the capitalist overthrow is brought about through a bloody revolution. According to Marx, competitive capitalism would first give way to monopoly capitalism before its contradictions ultimately lead to its destruction. The revolution will be led by workers who will take over the system by ‘expropriating the expropriators’. Marx believed that change comes from below, that is, a change in economic base leads to a change in superstructure and not vice versa. Marx was influenced by Hegel’s dialectics but inverted the sequence of change. While Hagel’s theory is called ‘dialectical idealism’, Marx termed his theory as ‘dialectical materialism’. How Marxism developed after Marx and Engels is also briefly discussed.