SOC 302 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: The Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels, Wage Labour

• School: UT-Austin
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 302
• Professor: Hossein Haghshenas

Document Summary

Starting pt for sociological analysis of stratification in societies: b/w bourgeoisie (capitalists) and proletariat (workers) Ruling class in society dominant by virtue of its superior material/economic position: ideas mirror material reality. >also is ruling intellectual force: regulate production & distribution of ideas of their age (their ideas are the ruling ones) >division of labour and also mental & material labour: one part of class is thinkers (active, conceptive ideologists) while the other is more passive and receptive (the active members of this class) >existence of revolutionary ideas in a particular period assumes the existence of a revolutionary class. Class making a revolution s victory benefits other individuals of classes. Bourgeoisie cannot exist w/o constantly revolutionizing instruments of production: need of a constantly expanding market for its products. >competition forces captitalists to cut production costs & produce more efficiently through reduction of wages, greater division of labor increasing unemployment among skilled workers & exploitation of cheaper working class (women, children)