Karl Marx
(1818-83)
Marx was the German founder of communism. He followed
Hegel's deterministic
view that all events come about as a result of the inevitable progress of
history, "progress" in that the state passes through different stages.
"A nation is assigned the accomplishment of one of these stages, it
flourishes for a while and then gives way to another. It then disappears
and another, superior State emerges."
With Engels, Marx brought out the Communistic Manifesto.
Marx' prescription was to increase the power of the State. In the process
the bourgeois family will vanish along with its complement, capital.
Specifically, in his Communist Manifesto Marx proposed:
- Abolition of property in land and application of all rents to public purposes.
- A heavy progressive income tax.
- Abolition of all right of inheritance.
- Confiscation of the property of emigrants and rebels.
- Centralization of credit in the hands of the State.
- Centralization of the means of communication and transport...
- Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State...
- Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
- Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country...
- Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of child factory labor ...
The fundamental difference in the beliefs between socialism and Marxism is that Marxists believe that we are powerless to shape the course of history, whereas the Utopian belief is that it is within our power to make a perfect society.