Marxs theory of history

The Marxist theory of historical materialism sees human

society as fundamentally determined at any given time by
the material conditions in other words, the relationships
which people have with each other in order to full basic
needs such as feeding, clothing and housing themselves
and their families.[1] Overall, Marx and Engels claimed
to have identied ve successive stages of the development of these material conditions in Western Europe. In
contrast to many of his followers, Marx made no claim
to have produced a master key to history, but rather considered his work a concrete study of the actual conditions
that pertained in Europe. As he put it, historical materialism is not an historico-philosophic theory of the marche
generale imposed by fate upon every people, whatever the
historic circumstances in which it nds itself.[2]

does for capitalism and the stages that follow. Nonetheless, these epochs have common characteristics.

2.1 Primitive communism

The First Stage: is usually called primitive communism.
It has the following characteristics.
Shared property: there is no concept of ownership
beyond individual possessions. All is shared by the
tribe to ensure its survival.
Hunting and gathering: tribal societies have yet to
develop large scale agriculture and so their survival
is a daily struggle.
Proto-democracy: there is usually no concept of
leadership yet. So tribes are led by the best warrior
if there is war, the best diplomat if they have steady
contact with other tribes and so forth.

Private property

The Marxist concept of private property gives the basis

for Marxs theory. Private property in the terminology of Marxs time, for Marx himself, and for Marxists
sometimes today, does not mean the simple possessions
of a person, but the ownership of productive property or
property which produces a prot for the owner,[3] such as
corporate ownership, share ownership, land ownership,
and in the case of slave society slave ownership
(since slaves work the land, mines and other means of
producing the material means of existence).

The primitive communism stage most likely begins soon

after the dawn of humanity itself, at the stage where re is
developed, and communal living therefore becomes more
convenient. Primitive communist societies tend to be
very small, consisting of a maximum of a few hundred
members, with size being dependent upon the environment. In this stage humanity is no dierent from any
other animal, in that it has not yet found ways to bend
nature to its will.

This stage ends with the development of private property,

especially with the development of large scale agriculture.
This in turn produces productive property, such as cattle
Marx saw that each stage or epoch created a new class and slaves.
or invention that would lead to its downfall. However the
downfall would not be an automatically negative event,
since with each step humanity at large would benet. 2.2 Slave society
Each passing stage would therefore raise the standard of
living of the masses while at the same time be doomed to The Second Stage: may be called slave society, considits own downfall because of internal contradictions and ered to be the beginning of class society where private
property appears.
class conicts.

The stages of history

Only the last two epochs are spared from this fate. With
socialism the nal oppressive class is overthrown and society is put under the dictatorship of the proletariat and
thus advances into communism.

Class: here the idea of class appears. There is always a slave-owning ruling class and the slaves themselves.

The rst three stages are not given particular attention,

since by Marxs time they had long come to pass. As such,
he does not provide the principles of these stages as he

Statism: the state develops during this stage as

a tool for the slave-owners to use and control the
slaves.
1

2 THE STAGES OF HISTORY

Agriculture: people learn to cultivate plants and conicts with the aristocracy. The old feudal kings and
animals on a large enough scale to support large pop- lords cannot accept the new social changes the capitalulations.
ists want for fear of destabilizing or reducing their power
base, among various other reasons that are not all tied to
Democracy and authoritarianism: these oppo- power or money.
sites develop at the same stage. Democracy arises
rst with the development of the republican city- These proto-capitalist and capitalist classes are driven by
the prot motive but are prevented from developing furstate, followed by the totalitarian empire.
ther prots by the nature of feudal society where, for in Private property: citizens now own more than per- stance, the serfs are tied to the land and cannot become
sonal property. Land ownership is especially impor- industrial workers and wage earners. Marx says, Then
tant during a time of agricultural development.
begins an epoch of social revolution (the French Revolution of 1789, the English Civil War and the Glorious
of 1688, etc.) since the social and political
Revolution
The slave-owning class own the land and slaves, which
organization
of feudal society (or the property relations
are the main means of producing wealth, whilst the vast
of
feudalism)
is preventing the development of the capimajority have very little or nothing. The propertyless intalists
productive
forces.[4]
cluded the slave class, slaves who work for no money, and
in most cases women, who were also dispossessed during this period. From a Marxist perspective, slave society collapsed when it exhausted itself. The need to keep 2.4 Capitalism
conquering more slaves created huge problems, such as
maintaining the vast empire that resulted (i.e. The Roman Marx pays special attention to this stage in human deEmpire). It is ultimately the aristocracy born in this epoch velopment, as it was the one he lived on. The bulk of
that demolishes it and forces society to step onto the next his work is devoted to exploring the mechanisms of capitalism, which in western society classically arose red in
stage.
tooth and claw from feudal society in a revolutionary
movement.

2.3

Feudalism

Capitalism may be considered the Fourth Stage in the

sequence. It appears after the bourgeois revolution when
The Third Stage: may be called feudalism; it appears the capitalists overthrow the feudal system. Capitalism is
after slave society collapses. This was most obvious dur- categorized by the following:
ing the European Middle Ages when society went from
slavery to feudalism.
Market economy: In capitalism, the entire economy is guided by market forces. Supporters of
Aristocracy: the state is ruled by monarchs who inlaissez faire economics argue that there should be
herit their positions, or at times marry or conquer
little or no intervention from the government on the
their ways into leadership.
economy under capitalism. Marxists, however, such
as Lenin in his Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Cap Theocracy: this is a time of largely religious rule.
italism, argue that the capitalist government acts as
When there is only one religion in the land and its
a powerful instrument for the furtherance of capiorganizations aect all parts of daily life.
talism and the capitalist nation-state, particularly in
the conquest of markets abroad, and also in the di Hereditary classes: castes can sometimes form and
rect repression of reactionary/neofeudal movements
ones class is determined at birth with no form of
and proto-socialist or socialist movements.
advancement. This was the case with India.
Nation-state: nations are formed from the remnants of the fallen empires. Sometimes to rebuild
themselves into empires once more. Such as Englands transition from a province to an empire.
During feudalism there are many classes such as kings,
lords, and serfs, some little more than slaves. Most of
these inherit their titles for good or ill. At the same time
that societies must create all these new classes, trade with
other nation-states increases rapidly. This catalyzes the
creation of the merchant class.
Out of the merchants riches, a capitalist class emerges
within this feudal society. However, there are immediate

Private property: The means of production are no

longer in the hands of the monarchy and/or the nobility, but rather they are controlled by the bourgeois and the petit-bourgeois classes. The bourgeoisie and the petit-bourgeoisie control the means
of production through commercial enterprises (such
as corporations) which aim to maximize prot.
Bourgeois democracy: The bourgeoisie eventually
(after years of struggle and opposition) accepted a
form of democratic governance, descendent of the
elective monarchy system (Like the Sejm) through
elected representatives. Bourgeois democracy at its
beginning had minimum wealth/status requirements

2.5

Socialism
and sometimes led to dierent weight in voting, depending of the wealth/status of the voter. Historically it has also excluded (by force, segregation, legislation or other means) sections of the population
such as women, slaves, ex-slaves, ethnic, linguistic
and religious minorities. Eventually the bourgeoisie
accepted to extend the right to vote gradually to a big
part of the population, although this not necessarily
led to a universal surage. A democratically elected
government today usually only reaches power with
heavy monetary support from the bourgeoisie, and
even if it doesn't acts directly on behalf of them, are
forced to by the structure itself.

Wages: In capitalism, the proletariat sells its workforce to survive, and theorically is paid for their productivity. The bourgeoisie and its supportive classes
propagate the illusion that market forces mean wages
converge to an equilibrium at which workers are
paid for precisely the value of their services. In reality workers are paid less than the value of their
productivity the dierence forming prot for
the employer (surplus value), with the medium being manipulable by the elites (See Industrial reserve
army). In this sense paid employment is exploitation and while working in the production line the
worker is alienated from the product of their work.
Insofar as the prot-motive drives the economy, it
is impossible for all workers to be paid for the full
value of their labour, with the exception of a small
labour aristocracy, specialized workers which are
paid from the surplus value other workers produce,
in exchange for their knowledge and loyalty.

3
war, and drives down the prot of those in competition, though it can happen that opponents which
can't defeat each other or don't want to, seek agreements to reduce competition and increase prots.
In capitalism, the prot motive rules and people, freed
from serfdom for that purpose, to work for the capitalists in exchange of wages. The capitalist class are free
to spread their laissez faire practices around the world.
In the capitalist-controlled parliament, laws are made to
protect wealth.
But according to Marx, capitalism, like slave society and
feudalism, also has critical failings inner contradictions which will lead to its downfall. The working class,
to which the capitalist class gave birth in order to produce
commodities and prots, is the grave digger of capitalism. The worker is not paid the full value of what he or
she produces. The rest is surplus value the capitalists
prot, which Marx calls the unpaid labour of the working class. The capitalists are forced by technological advances and partially by competition to drive down the
wages of the working class to increase their prots, and
this creates a more direct conict between these classes,
and gives rise to the development of class consciousness
in the working class. The working class, through trade
union and other struggles, becomes conscious of itself as
an exploited class.

In the view Marx, the struggles of the working class

against the attacks of the capitalist class lead the working
class to establish its own collective control over production the basis of socialist society. Marx believed that
capitalism always leads to monopolies and leads the people to poverty; yet the fewer the restrictions on the free
Imperialism: Capitalist States actively seek to con- market, (e.g. from the state and trade unions) the sooner
quer, dominate or indirectly control other regions or it nds itself in crisis.
States, encouraged and aided by the bourgeoisie, in
order to gain access to important raw materials, but
most importantly to provide captive markets for n- 2.5 Socialism
ished products. This is done directly through war,
the threat of war, the election of a politician aligned After the working class gains class consciousness and
with that nation or the export of capital and even- mounts a revolution against the capitalists, socialism,
tual control of the victimized state economy. The which may be considered the Fifth Stage, will be atImperialist States control over this regions or states tained, if the workers are successful.
can play an essential part in the development of this Lenin divided communism, the period following the
Imperialist States economy and capitalism, to the overthrow of capitalism, into two stages: rst socialism,
extent the state has money spat directs warfare and and then later, once the last vestiges of the old capitalist
other foreign intervention.
ways have withered away, stateless communism or pure
Financial institutions: Banks and capital markets
such as stock exchanges direct unused capital to
where it is needed. They reduce barriers to entry in
all markets, especially to the poor; it is in this way
that banks dramatically improve class mobility.

communism.[5] Lenin based his 1917 work, The State and

Revolution, on a thorough study of the writings of Marx
and Engels. Marx uses the terms the rst phase of communism and the higher phase of communism, but Lenin
points to later remarks of Engels which suggest that what
people commonly think of as socialism equates to Marxs
rst phase of communism.

Monopolistic tendencies: The market forces creates monopolies from the most successful or de- Socialism may be categorized by the following:
ceitful commercial entities, as the market rewards
Decentralized planned economy: rather than by
those who smashes his opponents through capital

2 THE STAGES OF HISTORY

market forces alone which brought the crises of capitalism, production is based on scientic planning
and the democratic consensus of the workers, via
communes or councils.
Common property: the means of production are
taken from the hands of a few capitalists and put in
the hands of the workers. This translates into the
democratic communes controlling the means of production.
Council democracy: Marx, basing himself on a
thorough study of Paris Commune, believed that
the workers would govern themselves through system of communes. He called this the dictatorship
of the proletariat, which, overthrowing the dictatorship (governance) of the bourgeoisie, would democratically plan production and the resources of the
planet.

would dier, so that the results would still be unequal at

this stage, although fully supported by social provision.
Fiat money and credit whose values were determined by
anarchic market forces are abolished. Instead, in his Critique of the Gotha programme, Marx speculated schematically that from the total social product there would be
deductions for the requirements of production and the
common satisfaction of needs, such as schools, health services, etc which latter deduction grows in proportion
as the new society develops, and, of course, deductions
for those unable to work, etc. After these deductions
the workers could divide up the wealth produced by their
labor and everyone could be simply given a certicate
from society, which could then be exchanged for products. This schematically introduces a means of exchange
(the same principle i.e. money) in socialist society but
with the speculative element removed.
In this way, each worker is paid according to the amount
of labor contributed to society, in other words according
to the agreed diculty, length of time, and intensity of
his labor. All goods (such, for instance, as housing) are
priced in a greater degree according the amount of labor
required to produce them, which the individual worker
can buy with his labor voucher.

Labor vouchers: Marx explained that, since socialism emerges from capitalism, it would be stamped
with its birthmarks. Economically this translates
into the individual worker being awarded according to the amount of labor he contributes to society.
Each worker would be given an amount of standardised credit verifying his contribution which he could Only if this new socialist society manages to end the dethen exchange for goods produced by other workers. structiveness of capitalism and leads to a higher quality
of life for all will socialist society be successful. As soMarx explains that socialist society, having risen from a cialism raises everyones quality of life above the precariself conscious movement of the vast majority, makes such ous existence they knew hitherto, providing decent health
a society one of the vast majority governing over their own care, housing, child care, and other social provision for
all without exception, the new socialist society begins to
lives:
break down the old inevitably pecuniary habits, the need
Now the productive forces are truly free to develop, but in
for a state apparatus will wither away, and the communist
a democratically planned way, without the vast waste of
organization of society will begin to emerge. Socialism,
anarchic capitalist society, its wars and destruction of the
in the view of Marxists, will succeed in raising the qualplanet. One of the primary tasks of the workers in the soity of life for all by ending the destructive contradictions
cialist society, after placing the means of production into
which arise in capitalism through conicts between comcollective ownership, is to destroy the old state machinpeting capitalists and competing capitalist nations, and
ery. Hence the bourgeoisies parliamentary democracy
ending the need for imperialist conquest for the possesceases to exist, and at and credit money are abolished. In
sion of commodities and markets.
Marxs view, instead of a dictatorship of capital, in which
rulers are elected only once every few years at best, the
state is ruled through the dictatorship of the proletariat
with the democratically elected workers commune to re2.6 Communism
place the parliament:
The commune, in Marx and Engels view, modeled after
the Paris Commune, has a completely dierent political
character from the parliament. Marx explains that it holds
legislative-executive power and is subservient only to the
workers themselves:
Marx explained that, since socialism, the rst stage of
communism, would be in every respect, economically,
morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges,
each worker would naturally expect to be awarded according to the amount of labor he contributes, despite the
fact that each workers ability and family circumstances

Some time after socialism is established society leaps

forward, and everyone has plenty of personal possessions, but no one can exploit another person for private
gain through the ownership of vast monopolies, and so
forth. Classes are thus abolished, and class society ended.
Communism will have spread across the world and be
worldwide. Eventually the state will wither away and
become obsolete, as people administer their own lives
without the need for governments or laws. Thus, stateless
communism or pure communism, which may be considered the Sixth Stage, is established, which has the following features:

5
Statelessness: there are no governments, laws, or of primary and secondary factors, even where one is givnations any more.
ing a non-reductionist, holistic account of social interaction.
Classlessness: all social classes disappear, everyThe level of development of societys productive forces
one works for everyone else.
(i.e., societys technological powers, including tools, ma Propertylessness: there is no money or private chinery, raw materials, and labour power) determines soproperty, all goods are free to be consumed by any- cietys economic structure, in the sense that it selects a
structure of economic relations that tends best to facilione who needs them.
tate further technological growth. In historical explanation, the overall primacy of the productive forces can be
In The Communist Manifesto Marx describes commuunderstood in terms of two key theses:
nism as:
In saying that productive forces have a universal tendency
Few applications of historical materialism, the philosophto develop, Cohens reading of Marx is not claiming that
ical system used by Marxism to explain the past progresproductive forces always develop or that they never desions of human society and predict the nature of commucline. Their development may be temporarily blocked,
nism, account for a stage beyond communism, but Marx
but because human beings have a rational interest in desuggests that what has ended is only the prehistory [9] of
veloping their capacities to control their interactions with
human society; now, for the rst time, humankind will no
external nature in order to satisfy their wants, the historlonger be at the mercy of productive forces (e.g. the free
ical tendency is strongly toward further development of
market) which act independently of their control. Instead
these capacities.
human beings can plan for the needs of society, inclusively, democratically, by the vast majority, who now own
and control the means of production collectively. By implication, then, only now does the real history of human 4 See also
society begin.
Social order

Cohens interpretation of Marx

Karl Marxs Theory of History: A Defence by G. A.

Cohen is a key work for the philosophical school of
Analytical Marxism. In it, Cohen advances a sophisticated technological-determinist interpretation of Marx
in which history is, fundamentally, the growth of human
productive power, and forms of society rise and fall according as they enable or impede that growth.[10]

Classical Marxism
Historical Materialism
Marxism

5 References
[1] See, in particular, Marx and Engels, The German Ideology
[2] Marx, Karl: Letter to the editor of the Russian magazine

Cohen proposes that explanation in Marxs conception of

Otetchestvennye Zapisky, 1877.
the social system is functional, by which he means roughly
that the character of what is explained is determined by [3] Gewirth, Alan (1998). The Community of Rights (2
ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 168. ISBN
its eect on what explains it, so that economic relations of
9780226288819. Retrieved 2012-12-29. Marxists someproduction profoundly aect productive forces (technoltimes distinguish between 'personal property' and 'private
ogy), and legal-political superstructures strongly condiproperty,' the former consisting in consumer goods dition economic foundations. Thus, in the latter case, in one
rectly used by the owner, while the latter is private owndirection a societys legal-political superstructure stabiership of the major means of production.
lizes or entrenches its economic structure, but in the other
direction the economic relations determine the character [4] Marx, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political
Economy Marx, Early writings, Penguin, 1975, p425-6
of the superstructure, so that in this sense the economic
base is primary and the superstructure secondary. It is [5] Lenin: The State and Revolution
precisely because the superstructure strongly aects the
base that the base selects that superstructure. As Charles [6] Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Taylor puts it, These two directions of inuence are so
[7] Marx and Engels, The Civil War in France
far from being rivals that they are actually complementary. The functional explanation requires that the sec- [8] Marx and Engels, The Critique of the Gotha Programme
ondary factor tend to have a causal eect on the pri[9] Marx, Early writings, Penguin, 1975, p. 426.
mary, for this dispositional fact is the key feature of the
[11]
explanation. It is because the inuences in the two di- [10] G. A. Cohen, Karl Marxs Theory of History (Princeton:
rections are not symmetrical that it makes sense to speak
Princeton University Press, 1978), p. x.

[11] Charles Taylor, Critical Notice, Canadian Journal of

Philosophy 10 (1980), p. 330.
[12] Cohen, p. 134.

REFERENCES

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