Classes in Marxian Theory

Abstract

We argue that Marx provided the basis for a far more complex class analysis of social formations than has been recognized. We find this analysis to be consistent neither with the two-class approach long prevalent in the Marxian tradition nor with recent critiques of that approach by Poulantzas, Wright, and others. Marx's most basic philosophic concepts and his value analysis are shown to imply a differentiation between what he terms the fundamental classes (performers and appropriators of surplus labor) and we term the subsumed classes (recipients of distributed shares of the appropriated surplus labor). This differentiated class analysis, in turn, suggests certain adjustments in Marxian value analysis. It also suggests a resolution to the debates over productive/unproductive labor and over the defmiition of "the working class." Finally, we demonstrate how such a class analysis of any concrete social situation requires the specification of the precise fundamental and subsumed classes involved and the contradictions, alliances, and struggles within and between them. We analyze briefly several topics (e.g., the state, household, and capital accumulation) to illustrate the explanatory power of our formulation of Marx's concepts of class.