Terms & Defs
The capitalist class that owns the means of production
What is the bourgeoisie?
What is feudalism?
The economic role of the proletariat in the capitalist system
What is wage labor?
The country where Karl Marx was born
What is Germany?
What is land?
The working class who sell their labor for wages under capitalism
What is the proletariat?
The bourgeoisie established this to connect global markets and production
What is the world market?
Under capitalism, proletarians are often treated as this rather than people
What is a commodity?
The co-author of The Communist Manifesto
Who is Friedrich Engels?
The class structure of feudalism was largely based on this hereditary principle
What is birth or lineage?
The historical conflict between social classes driving societal change
What is class struggle?
Marx describes the bourgeoisie as capitalism's revolutionary class but also labels them this type of antagonist to the proletariat
What is oppressor?
What is the establishment of a classless, communist society?
The primary philosophical influence on Marx's historical materialism
Who is Hegel?
In capitalism, this replaces land as the primary driver of economic activity
What is capital or industrial production?
The disconnection workers feel from their labor and the products they create under capitalism
What is alienation?
The bourgeoisie are driven to constantly expand markets for this reason
What is the need to maintain profits?
This has replaced skilled workers in industrial capitalism and resulted in worsening conditions for the proletariat.
What are technological advancements?
The city where Marx spent most of his adult life writing and working
What is London?
The feudal counterpart to the modern proletariat, who were tied to the land and served their lords
Who are serfs?
The process by which capitalism produces more goods than can be consumed, leading to economic crises
What is overproduction?
The bourgeoisie are described as producing this force that will eventually overthrow them
What is the proletariat?
This term describes the proletariat's role as the force destined to overthrow capitalism
What is capitalism's grave-digger? What is a dialectic?
The political movement inspired by Marx's theories
What is communism?
Unlike feudalism, capitalism commodifies not only goods but also this aspect of human life
What is labor?