Known for his profound influence on social and economic thought in the late 19th and the 20th centuries. He saw capitalism as a stage in history, which he understood, in characteristic 19th-century terms, as progressive. Capitalism followed feudalism, which followed ancient slave-based societies. In its turn capitalism would be followed by communism. The driving force of these historical changes lay in the economic base of society, that is, the means and relations of production, which determined the allocation of political power.<\/p>\n
In the case of capitalism, the exploitation of wage-earning workers by the owners of the means of production would inevitably increase as competitive pressures squeezed the profit margins. With the rise of working-class consciousness of exploitation, revolution was increasingly likely.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Known for his profound influence on social and economic thought in the late 19th and the 20th centuries. He saw capitalism as a stage in history, which he understood, in characteristic 19th-century terms, as progressive. Capitalism followed feudalism, which followed ancient slave-based societies. In its turn capitalism would be followed by communism. The driving force […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-m"],"yoast_head":"\n