A critical overview of Karl Marx’s ideas in The Manifesto of the Communist Party is a good chance to comprehend and learn better the conditions under which society had to live when the power of capitalism was evident. The Manifesto of the Communist Party is a powerful source of information about the most crucial force in history that is the attention to social and personal interests, the peculiarities of the bourgeoisie with its powers, the power of revolution and money, and the role of the proletariat, and the impact of the capitalism geographical expansion.
The historical background of this document highlights the concept of social classes comprising mainly of the oppressors and oppressed, and the consequential class struggles across hitherto societies. The oppressors possessed property and means of production, while the oppressed provided workforce labor. Class antagonisms prompted conflicts, and, as history evolved, the triumph of one class eliminated the rule of the other.
The victors would rule for an era only for another class to rise against them and promote the succession of revolutions. Marx writes that the process of overriding societal interests is considered to be the most significant force in history. If the society feels that no one is considering their interests, they will revolt to have their pleas heeded. The document concurs that revolution is a real and inevitable process, caused by class antagonism and helps restructure society. During these transformations, more accommodating political, economic, and social institutions come into play.
The bourgeoisie is introduced as the ruling, dominant class in the contemporary modern industry epoch. It consists of manufacturers and enterprise proprietors. They employ proletarians in their industries to work and make profits for them. The bourgeoisie is a result of the chain of revolutions that transpired over the past decades. The first bourgeoisie originated from the feudal lords of the Middle Ages. They became the most prestigious and dominant ruling class in society. The foundation of their power is on the full exploitation by means of exchange and production on a global level. The bourgeoisie draws mostly on the world market, commerce, communication, navigation, free trade, competition, and extended railways to increase its capital and conquer other classes.
According to Marx, the bourgeoisie is revolutionary as it keeps restructuring and dramatically altering the systems and modes of production. The bourgeoisie must unceasingly remold the socio-economic structures to remain self-sustainable. The ever-growing needs, supply, and demand associated with the continually expanding world market as a constant change. Retaining early techniques of production will also see to their displacement by the proletarians that had to accept capitalism.
Capitalism encompasses private enterprises and free market and permits free trade. The bourgeoisie has implemented a capitalist economy by privately owning and managing production means. In essence, this economy is a kind of a monetary economy, as money is the universally accepted medium of exchange and consists of both producers and consumers, who sustain themselves through money income. The consumers sell their labor to receive a monetary wage income. The manufacturers purchase and utilize the consumers’ services and work to make a profit. This is why the role of money is to generate incomes and profits for the members involved.
The value and worth of money are overwhelming. From a pure moral perspective, money precipitates unethical elements such as greed and power as the root of all evil that increases the desire of consumerism and profiteering benefits that increase the gap between the social classes. From a political perspective, money performs the role a social weapon that prohibits the transformation from a capital to the social community, as the notion of monetary exchange proves difficult to change. Implementation of a communist structure is necessary to cater for the oppressed, but this proves troublesome, as the overriding concept of money is still very rigid.
In addition, Marx describes the proletariat as laborers with certain duties. Their role is to provide hard work and efforts for the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie employs the proletarians to work for them, and compensate them for monetary wages and salaries. Their relationship to money is by selling these factors of production to earn income. However, this compensation is minimal, as the proletarians are overworked yet paid meager salaries. This exploitation leads to the second role of the proletariats, which is to serve as a revolutionary class and overthrow the bourgeoisie. They are already fighting against this disgruntlement from their oppressors, and when they reach climax, they will topple their reign.
Marx also explains that the geographical expansion of capitalism is global. The bourgeoisie has developed their manufacturing industries to extend past national and regional localities, to eliminate state seclusion and self-sufficiency, and capture huge market consumption of its products. They have penetrated the global market and attained states’ interdependence by free market of state-of-art machineries, electric telegraphs, railways, cultivation, and navigation. The heartthrob of the capitalist economy is focused on towns and cities to increase urbanization.
In general, the assessment of Marx’s document reveals the historical instances of class struggles, revolutions, and capitalism. Capitalism is indeed defined as an exploitative and suppressive concept that increases the gap between social classes and belittling human value, proves the role of the bourgeoisie in a society, and underlines that money can solve a number of questions.