Explain the differences between Marx and Weber in terms of how they define the nature of social class.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In Marx’s work, social classes are defined by their distinctive relationships to the means of production. Taking this approach, Marx defined two classes in the emerging industrial societies of his own time: the capitalist class (or bourgeoisie) and the working class (or proletariat). He describes the bourgeoisie as the class that owns the means of production, such as mines or factories, and the proletariat as the class of those who must sell their labor to the owners of the means to earn a wage and stay alive. Marx maintained that in modern, capitalist society, each of these two basic classes tends toward an internal homogeneity that obliterates differences within them. Weber made a crucial distinction between two orders of ranking or stratification: class and status. Class had roughly the same meaning for both Weber and Marx. It refers to groupings of people according to their economic position. Class situation or membership, according to Weber, is defined by the individual’s strength in economic markets (e.g., the job market or capital markets), to the extent that these determine individual life chances. By life chances, he meant the fundamental aspects of an individual’s future possibilities that are shaped by class membership, from the infant’s chances for decent nutrition to the adult’s opportunities for worldly success.