Karl Marx, the Founder of Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical world-view. It is a method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history,a dialectical view of social change and an analysis of Capitalism.
Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th century by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism encompasses a revolutionary view of social change that has influenced socialist political movements around the world.
The Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of material conditions, taking at its starting point the necessary economic activities required by human society to provide for its material needs.
The form of economic organization is understood to be the basis from which the majority of other social phenomena — including social relations, political and legal systems, morality and ideology — arise or are greatly influenced.
These social relations form the superstructure for which the economic system forms the base. As technology improves, the existing forms of social organisation become inefficient and stifle further progress.
These inefficiencies manifest themselves as class struggles. This struggle materializes between the minority who own the means of production, and the vast majority of the population who produce goods and services.
Capitalism (according to Marxist theory) can no longer sustain the living standards of the population due to its need to compensate for falling rates of profit by driving down wages, cutting social benefits and pursuing military aggression.
According to Marxism, Socialism is a historical necessity but not an inevitability. In a socialist society, private ownership would be superseded by co-operative ownership.
A socialist economy would not base production on the creation of private profits, but would instead base production and economic activity on the criteria of satisfying human needs.
Eventually, socialism would give way to a communist stage of history: a classless, stateless system based on common ownership and free-access, superabundance and maximum freedom for individuals to develop their own capacities and talents.
As a political movement, Marxism advocates the creation of such a society.