Explain Marx's conception of communist society and assess critically in comparison and contrast with the social ideals of Rousseau

Résumé du document

"A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of Communism." This is the prophetic opening line of The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, one of the major and most well-known work of Marx and Engels, dealing with their ideal of a communist society. However, The Communist Manifesto is not a manual for communism, and the account of communist society can be found, scattered throughout several works by Marx. His description of communism is defined according to what is set to be its opposite – capitalist society. He imagines a future society that is modelled on his conceptual analysis of capitalism, in a dialectical manner. Thus, his description contains repeated references to the capitalist society he lived in. Marx used an original approach in defining his ideal society that differs from the other works of political philosophy. The dialectic approach allowed him to be more descriptive and fewer idealists, by taking constant roots in the observation of the society he lived in. His economic and historical approach is also new in the field of political philosophy.

Extraits

[...] In a communist society, a worker should be paid proportionally to the labour he provides for the community. But this can be a problem, because not everyone is able to work as hard or as long, and then not everyone would get an equal pay. Marx say that the same standard must be used to measure the labour provided in order to be fair, and that differences in income are inevitable. The leading principle, he says, in the retribution of labour should be “From each according to its ability, from each according to its needs.”[9] These four elements (revolution, internationalism, abolition of private property and division of labour) are the most important and prominent elements of Marx's conception of communist society. [...]

[...] Conclusion Marx's account of communist society can be classified and compared with he works of other philosophers who tried to imagine the ideal form of government and social organisation. Like Plato in The republic, Hobbes in the Leviathan, Rousseau and the Social Contract, his attempt is both valuable and suffers criticism. But Marx's ideas are new and unprecedented because of the historical and economic approach, but also because these ideas have actually been tested in real life, with governments overthrowing former orders with the will to set up the Marxist ideal, even if the accuracy of these attempts with what Marx did advocate is very disputable. [...]

[...] The evolution of ideas, for instance, is also all linked to the evolution of means of production, and the ruling class imposes its paradigm in order to serve its interests. As Marx explains it, class that is the ruling material force, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force”[2] Ideas are just the expression of the interests of the ruling class, they are merely presented as universal or eternal, but this is illusionary. As a consequence, in order to bring to the fore the interest of the working class, and then setting up communist society, the workers will have to take power, by revolution, because it is the only way to force history, and to break the domination of the Bourgeoisie. [...]

[...] Even if Marxist idea have globally failed when they were applied in real life as a form of government, we can see how Marx's analysis of capitalist society, and his historical materialism are important ideas in the field of political philosophy, even to this day, and continue to influence a lot of philosophers as well as political analysts. Bibliography MARX Karl, ENGELS Friedrich, The communist Manifesto, Oxford World's Classics MARX Karl, ENGELS Friedrich, The German Ideology, ed Lawrence and Wishard MARX Karl Critique of the Gotha Programme in Marx, Selected writings, Mc Lellan ROUSSEAU Jean-Jacques The Social Contract, Everyman's library MARX Karl, ENGELS Friedrich, The communist Manifesto, Oxford World's Classics chp1: Bourgeois and Proletarians, p4 MARX Karl, ENGELS Friedrich, The German Ideology, ed Lawrence and Wishard Part “Feuerbach”, p64. [...]

[...] “Every class which is struggling for mastery must first conquer for itself political power in order to represent its interests in turn as the General interest, which in the first moment it is forced to Rousseau would argue that here is such thing as a “general will” that transcends particular interests. The “general will” according to Rousseau is not the same as will of and therefore there is something beyond individual interests, that is more than the sum of the parts. [...]