Neo Marxism

Neomarxism

• Basic background and outline of the theory
• Neomarxism emerged as an internal critique of traditional Marxism.
• It combines traditional Marxism with the interactionist (social action theory) ideas. This is because neomarxist sociologists argue that traditional Marxism is too deterministic and ignored human agency due to being too focused on economic explanations.
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Gramsci's ideas

• Gramsci is often seen as a humanist Marxist as he places much less emphasis on economics and more on the choices or agency of members of different classes.
• Focuses on hegemonic (dominant) ideologies. Believes traditional Marxism underestimated the ability of the proletariat to resist the ruling class power.
• The state could retain political and ideological dominance if it made some concessions to the working class e.g. through welfare payments to appear to be helping them.
• Proletariat never fully taken in by capitalism- they accept it but are critical of it. Thus Gramsci argues that the proletariat must create their own counter hegemony to challenge the dominant hegemony.
• An example on these counter hegemony groups is 'anonymous', and WikiLeaks.
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Althusser's ideas

• Althusser argued that Marx had overemphasised how much the economy drove society. He instead argues that society is shaped by structures that shape ideas.
• For capitalism to continue; the state is used as a control:
• repressive state apparatus; police etc
• ideological state apparatus; media etc
• Suggests that capitalist society is made up of 3 interlocking elements:
• The economic system- producing all material goods
• The political system- organising society
• The ideological system- providing all beliefs and ideas
• The political and ideological systems have significant degress of independence. They have relative autonomy (degree of freedom from capitalism)
• Althusser's work thus moved away from the naïve form of Marxism that said everything in society simply exists for the benefit of capitalism and instead highlights the contradictions and differences between instittutions.
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The political system and relative autonomy?

• Does the political system have relative autonomy of the capitalist system as a whole?
• Political parties that appear to challenge capitalism and help the working class
• Pressure groups for instance Green Peace (example; policy of fraccing)
• Trade unions that fight for rights of workers
• The state must be SEEN as neutral; thus contradicting the Marxist theory that all institutions favour capitalism
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The Frankfurt school

• Associated with 3 major sociologists; Marcuse, Adorno, and Horkheimer.
• They argued that peoples ideas and motivations are far more important than Marx ever acknowledged.
• Despite Althusser's idea of relative autonomy, he too concentrated on social structure and had little concern with individuals own agency.
• The Frankfurt school thus developed three critiques of traditional Marxism:
• Instrumental reason- Marx failed to explore the reasons for accepting capitalism; wrong to dismiss as false class consciousness.
• Mass culture- Marcuse states Marx ignored the importance of media. Media helps to control the population.
• The oppression of personality- Marx neglected the way that individuals personalities and desires are controlled and directed to the benefit of capitalism. Early capitalism denied pleasures but now desires are used to sell products e.g. sex.
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Evaluation of Neomarxism

• STRENGTH: Neo-Marxists have been able to answer many of the criticisms made of traditional Marxism.
• WEAKNESS: In the process of incorporating new elements to traditional Marxism, the theory has become even more complex and arguably less powerful as an explanation of how societies develop.
• WEAKNESS: Social action theorists argue that even neo-Marxists emphasise the role of structures far too much and take too little account of human agency
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