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Class in Itself and Class Against Capital: Karl Marx and His Classifiers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Edward Andrew
Edward Andrew
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

This note argues that, widespread opinion to the contrary, Marx did not make a distinction between a class in itself and a class for itself but between a class against capital and a class for itself. Marx's formulation of a “class against capital” exhibits a political dimension lacking in a “class in itself”; political institutions and arrangements are not simply the instrument or the expression of a pre-existing class structure but rather condition or shape the class structure. The implications of the erroneous attribution to the theoretical understanding of class formation as well as practical politics are explored.

Résumé

Malgré les opinions largement répandues Marx n'a pas fait de distinction entre une classe en soi et une classe pour soi, mais plutôt il a fait une différence entre une classe contre le capital et une classe pour soi. La formulation marxienne d'une « classe contre le capital » a une dimension politique qui ne se retrouve pas dans une « classe en soi »; les institutions et compromis politiques ne sont pas simplement l'instrument ou l'expression d'une structure de classes pré-existente, mais plutôt ils façonnent ou conditionnent la structure de classes. Dans cet article l'auteur évalue les conséquences de la mauvaise interprétation de cet aspect du marxisme sur la compréhension théorique de la formation des classes ainsi que sur la pratique politique.

Type
Note
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1983 , pp. 577 - 584
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1983

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References

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4 See supra, footnotes 1, 2 and 3.

5 See supra, footnotes 2 and 3.

6 See supra, footnote 3.

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8 Ibid., 73. Emphasis in the original.

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