NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Ruling class

The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy. Marxism is the philosophy, social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German, Jewish, socialist philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Alienation is a process whereby people come to be estranged from the society around them. ... bourgeoisie is basically a trem that meens middle class. ... Class consciousness is a category of Marxist theory, referring to the self-awareness of a social class, its capacity to act in its own rational interests, or measuring the extent to which an individual is conscious of the historical tasks their class (or class allegiance) sets for them. ... In Marxist theory, commodity fetishism is an inauthentic state of social relations, said to arise in complex capitalist market systems, where social relationships are confused with their medium, the commodity. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Cultural hegemony is the concept that a diverse culture can be ruled or dominated by one group or class, that everyday practices and shared beliefs provide the foundation for complex systems of domination. ... The term exploitation may carry two distinct meanings: The act of utilizing something for any purpose. ... Marxs theory of human nature occupies an important place in his critique of capitalism, his conception of communism, and his materialist conception of history. Marx has sometimes been held to deny the existence of any human nature, though this view is now generally accepted to be mistaken. ... Labor power (in German: Arbeitskraft, or labor force) is a crucial concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ... â€˜Young Marxâ€™ is one half of the concept in Marxology that Karl Marxâ€™s intellectual development can be broken into two board categories, the other being â€˜Mature Marxâ€™. There is disagreement though as to when Marx thought began to mature, Lenin claimed Marxs first mature work as â€œThe Poverty... Marxian economics refers to a body of economic thought stemming from the work of Karl Marx. ... Marxian economics refers to a body of economic thought stemming from the work of Karl Marx. ... The word commodity is a term with distinct meanings in business and in Marxian political economy. ... The law of value is a concept in Karl Marxs critique of political economy. ... The means of production are physical, non-human, inputs used in production. ... In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... For the specific theoretical justifications behind the Great Leap Forward and the Five Year Plans, see Theory of Productive Forces. ... Surplus labour is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ... Surplus value, according to Marxism, is unpaid labour that is extracted from the worker by the capitalist, and serves as the basis for capitalist accumulation. ... In Karl Marxs Economics the transformation problem is the problem of finding a general rule to transform Marxâ€™s values defined and used in Capitals Volume I into the competitive prices (or prices of production) of Capitals Volume III. This problem was first introduced by Marx himself... Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour under a contract (employment), and the employer buys it, often in a labour market. ... The capitalist mode of production is a concept in Karl Marxâ€™s critique of political economy. ... Class struggle is class conflict looked at from a Marxist, libertarian socialist, or anarchist perspective. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... World revolution is a Marxist concept of a violent overthrow of capitalism that would take place in all countries, although not necessarily simultaneously. ... Primitive accumulation of capital is a concept introduced by Karl Marx in part 8 of the first volume of Das Kapital (in German: ursprungliche Akkumulation, literally original accumulation or primeval accumulation). Its purpose is to help explain how the capitalist mode of production can come into being. ... A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... See also Marxian economics Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory designs work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Karl Marxs materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists. ... See also Marxian economics Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory designs work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Karl Marxs materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists. ... Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term. ... It has been suggested that Marxist philosophy of nature be merged into this article or section. ... Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: æ¯›æ³½ä¸œæ€æƒ³, pinyin: MÃ¡o ZÃ©dÅng SÄ«xiÇŽng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of the Chinese communist Mao Zedong. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... For other meanings of autonomism, see autonomism (disambiguation) page Raised fist, stenciled protest symbol of Autonome at the Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus in Vienna, Austria Autonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. ... The term Marxist humanism has as its foundation Marxs conception of the alienation of the labourer as he advances it in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844--an alienation that is born of a capitalist system in which the worker no longer functions as (what Marx terms) a... Structural Marxism was an approach to Marxist philosophy primarily associated with the work of the French philosopher Louis Althusser, although the thought of Lucien Goldmann is sometimes seen as a precursor. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe (and more recently North America). ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany â€“ March 14, 1883, London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820, Wuppertal â€“ August 5, 1895, London), a 19th-century German political philosopher, developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). ... (Russian: Ð’Ð»Ð°Ð´Ð¸ÌÐ¼Ð¸Ñ€ Ð˜Ð»ÑŒÐ¸ÌÑ‡ Ð›ÐµÌÐ½Ð¸Ð½, Vladimir IliÄ Lenin; IPA:; born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov; April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1870 â€“ January 21, 1924), was a Communist revolutionary of Russia, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the main theorist of what has come to be called... (Russian: Ð›ÐµÐ² Ð”Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð´Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð¢Ñ€Ð¾Ñ†ÐºÐ¸Ð¹; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 â€“ August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Ð›ÐµÐ² Ð”Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð´Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð‘Ñ€Ð¾Ð½ÑˆÑ‚ÐµÐ¹Ð½), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 â€“ January 15, 1919, in Polish RÃ³Å¼a Luksemburg) was a Polish-born German Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... Antonio Gramsci Antonio Gramsci (January 22, 1891 â€“ April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician, leader and theorist of Socialism, Communism and Anti-Fascism. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and JÃ¼rgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ... Georg LukÃ¡cs (April 13, 1885 â€“ June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic in the tradition of Western Marxism. ... Louis Pierre Althusser (October 16, 1918 - October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and JÃ¼rgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ... Praxis school was a Marxist humanist philosophical movement that originated in Zagreb and Belgrade, SFRY, during the 1960s. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ...

The ruling class is a particular sector of the upper class that adheres to quite specific circumstances: it has both the most material wealth and the most widespread influence over all the other classes, and it chooses to actively exercise that power to shape the direction of a locality, a country, and/or the world. Most of the upper class does not fit the fundamentals of this description, but some do. Upper class refers to a group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. ... Wealth derives from the old English word weal, which meant well-being or welfare. The term was originally an adjective to describe the possession of such qualities. ...

Most stable groups of social animals (including humans) have a visible and invisible "ruling class". The decision makers in the group may change according to the decision-type and/ or the time of observation. For example, it used to be assumed that modern societies were patriarchal and the elders dominated the real decisions, even though many market economies focus on the decisionmakers of each particular (assuredly minor) market sector, who may in fact be children or women. A market economy (aka free market economy and free enterprise economy) is an economic system in which the production and distribution of goods and services takes place through the mechanism of free markets guided by a free price system rather than by the state in a planned economy. ...

The sociologist C. Wright Mills argued that the ruling class differs from the power elite. The latter simply refers to the small group of people with the most political power. Many of them are politicians, hired political managers, and military leaders. Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... Charles Wright Mills Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916, Waco, Texas â€“ March 20, 1962, Nyack, New York) was an American sociologist. ... A Power Elite, in political and sociological theory, is a small group of people who control a disproportionate amount of the means of production and access to decision-makers in a political system. ...

In Marxist political economics, the ruling class refers to that segment or class of society that has the most economic and -- only in second line -- political power. Under capitalism, the ruling class -- the capitalists or bourgeoisie -- consists of those who own and control the means of production and thus are able to dominate and exploit the working class, getting them to labor enough to produce surplus-value, the basis for profits, interest, and rent (property income). This property income can be used to accumulate more power, to extend class domination further. The economic power of a class gives it extraordinary political power so that state or government policies almost always reflect the perceived interests of that class. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... Sociologists usually define power as the ability to impose ones will on others, even if those others resist in some way. ... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... bourgeoisie is basically a trem that meens middle class. ... The means of production are physical, non-human, inputs used in production. ... The term exploitation may carry two distinct meanings: The act of utilizing something for any purpose. ... The production of surplus value, from Karl Marxs Capital in Lithographs, by Hugo Gellert, 1934 Surplus value is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy, where its ultimate source is claimed to be unpaid surplus labour performed by the worker for the capitalist, serving... Most generally, the accumulation of capital refers simply to the gathering or amassment of objects of value; the increase in wealth; or the creation of wealth. ... A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern a society, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ...

In other modes of production, there are other ruling classes: under feudalism, it was the feudal lords, while under slavery, it was the slave-owners. In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste. ... For other uses, see Slavery (disambiguation). ...

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