Post on 28-Mar-2015
transcript
Rise of the Modern StateSession3 – Capitalism and the Development of the Modern
State
Tonight’s lecture
• Introduction
• What is capitalism?- Marx’s historical materialism- Capitalism and the state
• What is industrialisation?- Industrialisation in Britain- Industrialisation and the state
• Concluding remarks
Introduction: What is capitalism?
“Capitalism is an economic system that is based on private ownership of the means of
production and the creation of goods or services for profit”
(Tormey, 2004)
“Capitalism is a system in which all economic actors…depend on the market for their most
basic needs” (Meiksins Wood, 2003)
Marx’s Historical Materialism
Hegel’s philosophical idealism: ideas are key to understanding society and social change.
Marx: The real world is not to be inferred from the study of the ideal; rather, it is the
ideal which has to be understood as a historical outcome of the real.
Marx’s Historical Materialism
• Means of production
the productive forces required to produce food, shelter and clothing (land, animals, tools etc.)
• Relations of production
the relations which economically bind one class to another (owners and non-owners of the means of production
• Modes of productionthe constitutive characteristic of a societies, based on the socio-economic system predominant within it
‘Base’ and ‘Superstructure’‘In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations
that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of
production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to
which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political, and
intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being
that determines their consciousness. […] With the change of the economic foundations the entire immense superstructure is more or
less rapidly transformed.’ [Karl Marx (2000/1977 [1859]) 'Preface to A Critique of Political Economy', in David McLellan (ed.) Karl Marx: Selected Writings, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 424-428, here p. 425 (emphasis added).]
Marx and the State
• The state has a material origin, and must be seen in relation to the economic structure of society.
• The state reflects the prevailing class structure of a given society, and it acts as an instrument of the dominant class.
• The state is not an independent institution above society or a public power which acts for the common good.
Capitalism and absolutism
Three central aspects definitive of the absolutist state (Giddens):
(1) centralisation and expansion of administrative power;
(2) the development of law;
(3) changes in fiscal management
Industrialisation• Industrialism is a form of social and economic
organisation that began to emerge in the late 18th century. Industrialism is associated with mechanised technology and factory production and with a particular organisation of social relations
• The Industrial Revolution is a period of rapid social, economic, demographic and technological change which took place in Britain from the latter half of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century
Industrialisation in Britain
The textile industry
Industrialisation and social change
• Shift from countryside to urban areas (urbanisation)
• Urbanisation in Britain: 1750: 15%; 1800: 25%; 1880: 80%
• The creation of two new classes: the capitalist owners of the means of production and the working class
• Formation of political parties and movements
Industrialisation and the state• The state set the preconditions for industrial
development: certain legal frameworks; the standardisation of currency; the creation of common systems of weights and measures; the construction of infrastructure
• The extended reach of the state into society: the state became a lot better at monitoring, regulating and otherwise intervening in social life. The state gained a greater capacity to project its power into society
Concluding remarks