Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Petite Bourgeoisie, On Human Nature, Labour Power
28 Nov 2013
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Document Summary
Marx on exploitation, the state, and human nature. Central idea: workers are sacrificed for the interest of capital. Exploitation is the extraction of surplus labor: the source of profit which makes the world go round, capitalist makes profit by . Capitalist profit is the surplus value created by workers. History is the history of class struggle. Conflicts of interest are linked to our relationship to the means of production: politics is mostly about resolving conflict for marx, it s class conflict, and only class conflict. The state exists to deal with conflicts of interest generated by coercive surplus extraction: to promote interests of those who control the means of production, this calls for revolution. Revolution is likely in states that fail to integrate their excluded classes. Bismarck s strategy: buy off working class and maintain a loyal army: a conservative introduce a welfare state.
