Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

Engels presents historical materialism as a tool one can use to diagnose social ills. Through observation (e.g., the study of history, engagement with politics) and materialist inquiry, Engels ascertains that economic and technological advances propel social and political change. According to Engels, one of the most significant results of historical development is class antagonism.

Engels states that modern class antagonism began under the European feudal system: “The separation of society into an exploiting and an exploited class, a ruling and an oppressed class, was the necessary consequences of the deficient and restricted development of production in former times” (79). When feudalism was replaced by capitalism, he continues, this problem only intensified. According to Engels, Class antagonism is not a mistake of capitalism’s development, but rather an essential feature. Thus, to end systemic exploitation, social class must be abolished—a feat which can only be achieved with the destruction of capitalism.

The Marxist understanding of class antagonism revolves around the belief that class structures are inherently exploitative. The lowest classes (i.e., the proletariat) are automatically exploited by the bourgeoisie and aristocracy by the very nature of their station. Likewise, the bourgeoisie are inherently subservient to the aristocracy, who sit at the top of the structure. Engels argues that capitalist economies cannot function without this hierarchy: “The development of industry upon a capitalistic basis made poverty and misery of the working masses conditions of existence of society” (39). Because of this, human suffering and oppression are inextricable from capitalism.

Engels’s socialism is apparently motivated by humanitarian impulses. In his view of society, most individuals are necessarily subjugated by the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. He argues that—unlike under feudalism, wherein the production of goods was slow and geared primarily towards the producers’ survival—the improved mechanisms of industry are powerful enough to sustain everyone.

The problem inherent to capitalism is that these means of production are owned by individuals who use them to generate profit, a process which cannot maintain itself without an artificial scarcity of goods and an underclass of laborers. Marxists believe that socialism is the solution to the socioeconomic inequality caused by capitalism. According to Engels, the introduction of socialism will relieve proletarian poverty, which will in turn end the class system. Without the class system, he believes “State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production” (79). The result he projects is a governing system defined by social liberty and attendance to its subjects’ needs.