Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 121

The historical development of human societies is not random or chaotic, but structured. Marx argues that, in the ancient past, small-scale human groups existed with no developed system of property ownership. Instead, all resources acquired were communally owned and no class divisions were present. Marx called this a form of primitive communism. But, as the group produced more, this mode of production was effectively outgrown and a new one emerged, this time with some private property ownership (including slavery), as in ancient Greece and Rome.

From here, societies based on settled agriculture and feudal property relations developed. The medieval system of European feudalism was based on a fundamental class division between landowners and landless peasants and tenant farmers, who were forced to work for landowners in order to survive. But the feudal mode of production also reached its productive limitations and gave way to the capitalist society with which we are now familiar. The early capitalists began to invest in workshops and manufacturing in the sixteenth century, and by the time of the French Revolution in 1789 they were numerous and powerful enough to become a revolutionary force in history.

Under capitalism, class antagonisms were greatly simplified as society ‘split into two great camps’ – the property owners (capitalists or the bourgeoisie) and the workers (or proletariat). The capitalist revolution broke the bounds of traditional feudal production, demanding tighter discipline and long working hours so capitalists could extract a profit from using workers’ labour power. In fact, Marx and Engels (2008 [1848]: 13–14) produce a glowing account of capitalism as the revolutionary transformation of society. In its first 100 years, capitalism ‘created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together’, though this was achieved by the ruthless exploitation of workers, which led to endemic alienation among the workforce. In Marx’s theory, a point is reached when, rather than promoting more growth and development, capitalist relations act as a brake, holding back socio-economic progress. Marx calls this a fundamental contradiction between the relations and forces of production, which eventually leads to revolution (Glyn 1990).

Marx argued that, as workers were brought together in large numbers in factories and on production lines, class consciousness would develop. The introduction of artificial intelligence and robotics into production processes makes this seem less likely today.

Marx expected that capitalism, just like feudalism, would give way to another mode of production – communism – brought about by disaffected workers who develop classconsciousness – an awareness of their exploited position. Under communism, private property would be abolished and genuinely communal social relations established. Unlike primitive communism, modern communism would retain all the benefits of the highly productive industrial system bequeathed by capitalism. This would produce an advanced, humane and sophisticated form of communal life, capable of delivering on the communist principle ‘from each, according to his [sic] ability, to each, according to his need’ (Marx 1938 [1875]: 10). In a very recent work, Bastani (2019) suggests that harnessing the potential of automation, artificial intelligence and robotics in the interests of everyone could lead to a ‘fully automated luxury communism’ – a contemporary restatement of the end point of Marx’s developmental theory.