Marx has had enormous influence on sociologi-cal thinking. But his revolutionary ideas, calling for the overthrow of capitalist society, also make hiswork highly controversial.One of the strongest criticisms of the Marxistapproach is that it ignores a central idea of theDavis-Moore thesis: that a system of unequalrewards is needed to place people in the rightjobs and to motivate people to work hard. Marx separated reward from performance; his egalitar-ian ideal was based on the principle “from each according to his ability, to each according to hisneeds” (Marx & Engels, 1972:388, orig. 1848). However, failure toreward individual performance may be precisely what caused the low productivity of the former Soviet Union and other socialist econ-omies around the world. Defenders respond to such criticism by asking why we assume that humanity is inherently selfish rather thansocial; individual rewards are not the only way to motivate people toperform their social roles (Clark, 1991). A second problem is that the revolutionary change Marx pre-dicted has failed to happen, at least in advanced capitalist societies. The next section explains why. Check Your Learning How does Marx’s view of social strat-ification differ from the Davis-Moore thesis?
Marx has had enormous influence on sociologi-
cal thinking. But his revolutionary ideas, calling for
the overthrow of capitalist society, also make his
work highly controversial.
One of the strongest criticisms of the Marxist
approach is that it ignores a central idea of the
Davis-Moore thesis: that a system of unequal
rewards is needed to place people in the right
jobs and to motivate people to work hard. Marx
separated reward from performance; his egalitar-
ian ideal was based on the principle “from each
according to his ability, to each according to his
needs” (Marx & Engels, 1972:388, orig. 1848). However, failure to
reward individual performance may be precisely what caused the
low productivity of the former Soviet Union and other socialist econ-
omies around the world. Defenders respond to such criticism by
asking why we assume that humanity is inherently selfish rather than
social; individual rewards are not the only way to motivate people to
perform their social roles (Clark, 1991).
A second problem is that the revolutionary change Marx pre-
dicted has failed to happen, at least in advanced capitalist societies.
The next section explains why.
Check Your Learning How does Marx’s view of social strat-
ification differ from the Davis-Moore thesis?
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps
