Social classes and class conflict in industrial society
Social classes and class conflict in industrial society is the title of an academic qualification font Ralf Dahrendorf , he during his postdoctoral studies at the London School of Economics drafted and with whom he is at the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken habilitated . The first edition appeared in 1957.
The text is based on an examination of Marx's class theory , which Dahrendorf - taking into account the social change that has occurred since Marx - sought to develop on a new basis. In theory, he took his own path between Marxism and structural functionalism , which led to an original theory of conflict and rule .
Dahrendorf only published the first edition of the font in Germany, while in Great Britain it appeared in several, also changed and expanded editions until the 1970s and was widely used as a textbook.
The book publication is dedicated to " David Lockwood and the mutual friends from the time of the 'Thursday evening seminar' at the London School of Economics (1952-54)".
Contents overview
I. The model of class society in Marx
II. Structural changes in industrial society since Marx
III. Recent sociological theories of class conflict
IV. Class Concept and Class Theory as Tools of Sociological Analysis
V. Social structure, class interests and social conflict
VI. Are there still classes?
Chapter I: The model of class society in Marx
Together with Theodor Geiger, Dahrendorf assumes the "intention to gain knowledge behind the class concept". This is not aimed at describing an existing state of society, but at the analytical assessment of “the legality of a society's development” (p. 17). The “often criticized two-class model on which Marx based his dynamic theory” is based on this (ibid.); of course, he also knew other classes (e.g. landowners, petty bourgeoisie). For Marx, the ultimate determining factor for the formation of classes is ownership of the means of production or the exclusion from them. Dahrendorf asks: “Does Marx understand property or production relations to mean the relations of factual control and subordination in the factories of industrial production - or only the relations of domination , insofar as they are based on the legal title of property?” (P. 19) , the authority structure of the industrial enterprise the decisive determinant for the class formation or the documented property right in connection with control powers over the production? The latter applies to Marx's class determination; only as "property relations are they relations of domination" (p. 20). The critical pivot point of Marx's class theory is the “identification of economic and political power” (p. 21). For Marx, the political rule of a class emerges from the relations of production: "Industrial classes are eo ipso also social classes, the industrial class conflict is political class conflict" (ibid.). This Marxian assumption is based on the generalized assertion “of an absolute and principled primacy of production” (ibid.).
According to Marx, the formation process of the classes takes place over several stages. First of all, the possession or non-possession of functioning private property creates specific class situations with the same interests (“class in itself”). But the mere “sameness of interests” could only be a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for the formation of classes. Only in the organized political struggle of class against class ( class struggle ) does the "class for itself" constitute itself.
Marx embedded his class theory in a “more comprehensive theory of class conflict as the engine of change in entire social structures” (p. 24); He thus formulated “a theory of structural social change through revolutions based on conflicts between antagonistic interest groups” (ibid.). In Marx's construction of understanding social conflicts as an essential part of every society and explaining social change through structurally generated conflicts, Dahrendorf sees a "meaningful principle of knowledge" (p. 25).
Dahrendorf's criticism of Marx's class theory refers to the "philosophical elements" that are beyond empirical examination. Thus Marx combines a " historical-philosophical conception" of the sequence of social formations (from the communist primitive society to class societies to classless society ) with sociological class theory and asserts the universality of class conflict in human history to date. Dahrendorf sees this as a “betrayal of sociology” (29).
Chapter II: Structural changes in industrial society since Marx
In this chapter Dahrendorf addresses conceptual differences and empirical developments that he invokes against Marx's determinations and assumptions.
First of all, it is a question of the terminological decision: capitalism or industrial society . Dahrendorf prefers the term industrial society, for which the dominant feature is the mechanized production of goods in factories and factories; he therefore considers it to be the broader term, while capitalism is just a specific form of industrial society that prevails in Europe and the United States.
Dahrendorf then outlines a series of structural changes that he understands as manifestations of normative changes. The changed social values are: 1. the development of economic rationalism , 2. the implementation of the performance principle , 3. the generalization of the civil equality law and 4. the formation of forms of stability (p. 38). He makes their "factual correspondences" (p. 40) by the separation of property and control; the more differentiated social stratification of the working class; the rise of a " new middle class " of employees and civil servants; the increased social mobility , associated with the growing importance of educational institutions; the enforcement of legal, political and social civil rights ; Finally, the “institutionalization of class antagonism” through the introduction of processes of conflict settlement between “capital” and “labor” (e.g. collective bargaining autonomy ).
In contrast, he considers the existence of a social stratification in the form of a “ status hierarchy” and the existence of an “unequal distribution of authority or legitimate power” (p. 74) to be invariable structural elements of industrial society . The latter manifests itself both in the politically legal rule of the state and in the industrial enterprise as a “second large 'ruling association'” (p. 76).
Chapter III: Recent Sociological Theories of Class Conflict
After the predominantly descriptive presentation of the changes in industrial society in the previous chapter, Dahrendorf examines a number of theories that start with Marx's class theory and attempt to modify, overcome or refute it.
Among other things, he discusses the following theoretical contributions: the separation of the concept of class from private property ( Joseph A. Schumpeter ); the transfer of control of the means of production to the managers ( James Burnham's “Revolution of Managers” and Fritz Croner's “Delegated Authority”); the emergence of a new "service class" ( Karl Renner ); the evolution of civic equality that counteracts the class division ( Thomas H. Marshall ), the replacement of the class division by stratification ( Theodor Geiger's “Class Society in the Melting Pot”) and Helmut Schelsky's thesis of the “ leveled middle class society ”.
In these contributions Dahrendorf does not find a solution to the problem of adapting Marx's class theory to the “new facts of developed industrial society”. He is certain that it has been refuted, if only through the “separation of property and control” (pp. 119f.).
Chapter IV: Class Concept and Class Theory as Tools of Sociological Analysis
This chapter serves to prepare Dahrendorf's own class theory, especially its main categories. This takes place in the confrontation with and the demarcation from Marx's theory. A subchapter is devoted to the subject of “what Marx saw right”; it is followed by six sub-chapters that deal with “what Marx saw wrong” and “what Marx overlooked”. In addition to the rejection of the historical-philosophical assumption of a revolutionary escalation of the class struggle, he evaluates the connection between class and property and the equation of economic and political power as further fundamental weaknesses of Marx's class theory.
Chapter V: Social Structure, Class Interests, and Social Conflict
In this chapter Dahrendorf presents the elements of his theory of social classes and class conflict. In contrast to the functionalist integration theory (with its most prominent exponent Talcott Parsons ), he starts from a theory of domination of the social structure and selects as a structural unit a "coercive union of domination, which bears the germ of overcoming it, insofar as it is unstable and in constant change "(P. 159). According to this, every society as a ruling association or "every smaller unit of the nature of a ruling association" (p. 162) comprises two polar aggregates of social positions (or roles assigned to them): on the one hand, roles of authority that are in the possession of legitimate power (rulership), on the other hand, negative authority roles that are excluded from legitimate power (subordination) (ibid.). The dynamics of domination and subordination result in social conflicts and social change. The object of the class conflict is to maintain or change the structure of rule.
Each ruling association is split into two groups with “objective” interests, of which Dahrendorf assigns one group the interest in maintaining the structure that establishes its rule, the other group the interest in changing or overcoming it (p. 167). These are “role” or “latent” interests, which only become “manifest” interests when they are consciously set (p. 169). "While latent interests are a postulate for the purpose of analysis and therefore do not 'exist', manifest interests are always realities in the minds of the bearers of positive or negative authority roles." (P. 170) Only the awareness of these interests turns "quasi- Groups “social classes. The real bearers of the class conflict are the organized smaller or larger interest groups within any ruling associations (e.g. state, economy, party, company), whereby the oppressed classes are "not to be presented as principally unorganized masses without any means of effect" (p. 197) . “Ruling classes are initially only ruling classes within certain ruling groups. Theoretically there can be as many competing, conflicting or mutually tolerant ruling classes in a society as there are ruling unions. "(P. 195)
Dahrendorf sees the cognitive intent of class theory in the explanation of the social structural change, which can be “traced back to systemically generated group conflicts within social structures” (p. 203). At the end of the chapter he formally summarizes the categories of his class theory. These are: structural change, social conflict, latent interests and quasi-groups, manifest interests and interest groups, rule and ruling association (pp. 203f.).
Chapter VI: Are There Still Classes?
Dahrendorf resolutely rejects all attempts to describe modern society as classless. For him there are social classes and class conflict “wherever rule within certain associations is differently distributed over social positions” (p. 213). He describes the state, industrial companies and churches as ruling associations (p. 212). At the center of his analysis he places the industrial company and its authority structure. "Wherever there are industrial companies, we are allowed to assume a quasi-group of the bearers of positive authority roles, whose latent interests conflict with those of the corresponding quasi-groups of the bearers of negative authority positions" (p. 218). According to Dahrendorf, the majority of employee roles can be “understood as differentiated management roles” (p. 223); They therefore belong to the ruling class in industrial operations alongside the company management.
In developed industrial societies the quasi-groups have transformed into organized interest groups (trade unions and employers' associations). The empirical conditions for the settlement of the industrial class conflict have changed in the last hundred years in such a way that they contribute to the alleviation and institutionalization of the class conflict , “without disappearing or losing importance, but without also leading to an absolute struggle for everything to become nothing ”(p. 234).
In the political ruling association, in other words: the state, the ruling class are "the bearers of three groups of roles, the holders of the seats in the ruling parties, the ministerial posts and the bureaucratic offices" (p. 252). Due to the separation of economy and politics, the positions of political power are also separated from the “bearers of industrial positions of power”, the “capitalists and managers” (p. 256). Through the formation of parties and democratic elections, the ruled political class is given the opportunity to “change the personnel of the ruling class” (p. 257).
Reception and criticism
Dahrendorf's assertion that economic and political conflicts are institutionally isolated in developed industrial societies met with criticism from the social sciences. According to Tom B. Bottomore , these claims are "much easier to refute empirically than those of Marx"; In European industrial societies, political disputes are still closely related to economic conflicts and are still strongly oriented towards class interests.
First edition
- Social classes and class conflict in industrial society . Ferdinand Enke, Stuttgart 1957
English editions
- Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society . Routledge, London 1959 (new editions: 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1972)
Secondary literature
- Entry Ralf Dahrendorf, Social classes and class conflict in industrial society . In: Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff (ed.): Lexicon of sociological works . Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2001, pp. 144f.
- Anthony Giddens : The Class Structure of Advanced Societies . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1984 (TB edition); There subsection 3.1: The classes in post-capitalist society in Dahrendorf , pp. 61–68, and subsection 4.1: The recent criticism , pp. 81–87.
Individual evidence
- ^ Ralf Dahrendorf: Social classes and class conflict in industrial society . Ferdinand Enke, Stuttgart 1957, SV
- ↑ Tom B. Bottomore: The Social Classes in Modern Society . Nymphenburger Verlaghandlung. Munich 1967, p. 32 and 95.