MARX

REVIEW & BACKGROUND

Review To apply theory in a responsible way: o Demonstrate that you understand it o Use it as a lens o Assess what new insights you find o Re-assess the theory itself Cultural shift (1300s-1800s) o Renaissance to Enlightenment Rise of liberalism o Individual: freedom o Locke: property as a right Background Socio-Economic Shift (1300s-1800s) o Feudalism (manorial system) to Capitalism (free-market system) How/Why did shift occur? o Role of Criminal Law Karl Marx studied this shift in detail

FEUDALISM TO CAPITALISM
Feudal Hierarchy: King o Nobility (Lords, bishops, barons, dukes, counts) Servicemen (knights, lesser clergy) Laborers (vassals, villeins, serfs) have to swear an oath producing the money: work to a certain point, make a tiny bit of money o Peasants (rent; no obligations to lord) Slaves Little reliance on free market system everything local Shift to capitalism = breakdown o Enclosure: closing off common use land that many depend on Series of Enclosure Acts Occurs very slowly (1400-1800) Considered an improvement Enhance lands productivity for profit: New farming techniques (more sheep) New ideas about property (real estate) Elimination of old customs that interfered with lands productivity (hourly wages) Major socio-economic change Capitalism Hierarchy

Merchants o Bourgeoisie Petite Bourgeoisie Proletariat: new working class

Feudalism
Common Land Subsistence Labor Wealth

Capitalism
Private Property Wage Labor Capital (profit, bank loans, investments)

Common Land Private Property Agriculture for profit Land becomes commodity Limited access creates divisions o Propertied: competitions for profit Subsistence Labour Wage Labour Loss of Control over Means of Production Labour becomes a commodity Labour mobility o Freedom = dependence on market forces Urbanization Vagrancy: homelessness Wealth Capital How wealth is accrued and used changes o New labour practices o Pooling wealth for new ventures (HBC) o Colonizing resource-rich territories Profit put back into productivity, growth o New system of commodity-based exchange

MARXS VIEWS
1818 1883, Prussia Wrote about transition to capitalism Focus on class struggle Studied law: criticized Kant Law and Capitalism Law is intrinsic to Capitalism: common, natural History of law = history of capitalism Focus: class dimensions of criminal law The proletariat [was] created by the breaking up of the bands of feudal retainers and by the forcible expropriation of the people from the soil These mencould not as suddenly adapt themselves to the discipline of their new conditions Free proletariat They were turned en masse into beggars, robbers, vagabonds, partly from inclination, in most cases from stress of circumstances Legislation treated them as voluntary criminals 2

Class Dimensions of Criminal Law Protect private property Discipline workers Define legitimate ways of making money Define acceptable labour practices