Marxist Socialism

Marxist socialism is a political philosophy that seeks to replace capitalism with a society in which the major resources used for production are collectively owned rather than privately controlled for profit. Developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it explains social change through material conditions and class struggle, and regards socialism as a transition towards a classless communist society.

Material conditions and class struggle

Marxism begins with how people produce their livelihood and how control over production structures society. Its materialist interpretation of history connects economic relations with political institutions, laws and dominant ideas.

• Historical materialism explains historical change through developments in productive forces and the social relations governing production.
• Class struggle arises between groups with opposing positions in the production system, such as those who own productive property and those who work for them.
• Contradictions within an economic system can create conditions for its transformation; capitalism is therefore treated as historically changeable, not permanent.

Critique of capitalism

Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie owns the principal means of production, while the proletariat depends on selling its labour power for wages.

• Exploitation arises because workers create value beyond what they receive in wages, and capitalists appropriate this surplus.
• Private ownership gives capitalists control over production, while competition and the pursuit of profit can generate insecurity, inequality and economic crises.
• Marxism distinguishes productive property that enables exploitation from personal possessions; its central target is capitalist ownership of the means of production.

Revolution and political power

Marx and Engels envisaged the working class organising politically to overcome capitalist rule. The state is understood primarily in relation to class power, rather than as a neutral institution standing above society.

• A proletarian revolution would transfer political power to the working class and enable the transformation of property relations.
• Marx described the political transition towards communism as the dictatorship of the proletariat, meaning working-class rule during the transformation of capitalist society.

Collective ownership and the communist goal

The immediate transformation centres on collective ownership of the means of production and production oriented towards social needs rather than private profit.

• Marx distinguished a lower phase of communist society, still bearing features inherited from capitalism, from a higher phase.
• In the higher phase, distribution would follow the principle: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
• The ultimate goal is a classless society in which the state’s function as an instrument of class domination becomes unnecessary.