A classless society would represent a social order without an economic base. Many doubt that a modern classless society can exist; as the failed experiment with Russian communism demonstrates (one would be hard pressed to argue that social inequality was eradicated via communism in the former Soviet Union regardless). Karl Marx wrote many theories about the stratification of society into different classes, the ruling class, the proletariat class, the bourgeoisie (capitalist) class, and the proletariat class (working-class). Marx argued that the economic base of society has enormous impact on the shape of all aspects of culture and social structure. Marx believed that the division of labor creates an inherent conflict between classes in society, whose inequalities can only be overcome through class struggle. This Marx viewed as the driving force behind all social change. Nevertheless, Marx still argued that class stratification reinforces the ruling class that exerts enormous influence on the rest of society. This analysis will review Marx’s theories on class stratification and class struggle, including a critical opinion and conclusion.
Karl Marx theorized that history was essentially the story of class conflicts that pitted those who owned or controlled property against those whose labor produced wealth and goods in which they did not share. In the modern industrial world, Marx believed that capitalism specifically pitted a few wealthy industrialists against a mass of exploited subsistence workers. Such a society would ultimately “fail because of its own internal contradictions and because the masses of workers would create a social revolution” (Solomon and Higgins 229). Marx further posited that historical change is not random but obeys a discoverable law. This law is that the formation of a society in which workers are alienated from the fruits of production will invariably fall victim to the social revolution c...