SİYASAL DÜŞÜNCE - Deneme Sınavı - 10

The substructure is divided into two factors, the means of production and the relations of production. The means of production are the resources and technology that a society makes use of. Means of production include tools, machinery, factories, materials and land; and together with labor power, they constitute productive forces. The relations of production between social classes are determined by the affiliation between humans and the means of production.

There is a fundamental a conflict of interest between the two classes 

The ruling class owns and controls the means of production 

The ruling class exploits and oppresses the subject class 

The institutions of superstructure serve to the ruling class

Especially in popular culture, anarchy is superficially understood as chaos, disorder, the collapse of order, confusion due to lack of state, or violent disorder. However, these are not the aims of anarchists. Indeed, anarchists consider the opposite would occur in the absence of state. All of the anarchists advocate that government is an obstacle that hinders human flourishing and progress. They all think that state should be totally or partly eliminated, but they have differences of opinion on the strategies. Yet no anarchist totally defends anarchy, because the most important form of government, that is, individuals’ self-governing will remain (Baradat, 1991, p.127). Some anarchists claim that all institutional governments must be eliminated for individuals to govern themselves. However, some others do not regard local level administration such as villages, communes, syndicates as obstructive structures. For them, abolishment of national states is enough. In short, anarchism is the expression of purest individualism and democracy, because it depends on the self-government of the individuals (Baradat,1991).

Keeping in mind that anarchism is not a homogeneous ideology, there are some notions that Anarchism and Marxism share in common.

These are:

William Godwin (1756-1836) Godwin is commonly accepted as the founder of modern anarchism. He was born in a Calvinist family and became a minister like many of his ancestors.

Physically disturbing working conditions

The value that workers produce above their
wages, which is at the survival level, is called
surplus value that is appropriated by capitalists as
their profit. For instance, if a worker has to work
five hours to produce the supplies for the survival
of him/herself and his/her family, and s/he is forced
to work 12 hours, yet paid only subsistence wage,
it means that the capitalist seize seven hours of
surplus value. Marx asserts that any profit that the
capitalists make from the labor of their workers
is exploitative, because the surplus value can be
produced only by the worker and it belongs to the
laborer. Marx did not condemn profit itself, but he
argued that the profit should not become a private
property of capitalists. He thought that capital,
which was produced by all, should be owned by
all. In other word, private citizens should not be
allowed to monopolize the means of production
and seize the surplus value. In capitalism, however,
capitalist is “a villain, a parasite who lives by sucking
the economic lifeblood of the proletariat, and must
be erased from society”.

Marx accepted and adopted the dialectic as the
essential logic of history. But, he did not accept the
metaphysical assumptions of Hegel. Like Hegel,
Marx also considered the dialectic as a means of
accomplishing historical progress through struggle;
yet he changed it since, for Marx, it was materialism
which inspired the dialectic, not spiritualism. Marx
claimed that the dialectic was a conflict among
worldly interests, and ideas were the results of such
conflict.

The superstructure of the society is composed
of all of the non-material institutions in the society
such as religion, government, law, education, art,
values, ideology and so forth. It is determined by the
foundation of the society; and every institution it
includes is arranged to suit the ruling class. In every
society, the social institutions in the superstructure
justify the economic system as well as the power
inequality in society through values and norms.
Institutions, such as laws, ideologies, education and
religion, create and maintain sympathetic, positive
attitudes towards the economic and the political
system. In addition, in political regimes such
as representative democracy, there is an illusion
that masses have control over the governments.
However, the governments are in fact led by the
leading capitalists. Hence, the superstructure
ensures the domination of the ruling class.

I. The power is held in the hands of an elite minority.

III. Rights and opportunities are not provided in order to help workers gain more freedom.

IV. Issues such as universal right to vote, individual rights, prospective benefits of communal political action are taught.

I. Economic factors

III. Social factors

IV. Class consciousness

All anarchists adopt a leftist ideology and aim for the total elimination of state and the collapse of order.

The perfecting of industrialized economics and the reach of their economic organs resulted in an increasing mechanization and quantification of productive activity.

Godwin

Stirner

While for anarchists, the revolution is the overthrown of the state, for maxists, the revolution is the overthrown of capitalism. Thus, the idea in I is not shared by both groups. For Marxists, organization and political leadership are necessary for working class whereas for anarchists, political leadership is a source of oppression such as state itself. So, this idea is not shared by both groups. But the rest of the options, i.e. II and IV are the ideas shared by both Marxists and Anarchists. So, the correct answer is option E.

Correct answer is option A. The Pacifist Anarchists share the common idea that the use of violence is not a viable way for social change. In addition, violence and war are unjustifiable, indefensible and all changes should be made with peaceful means.

:All the ideas given in the question were supported by Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy is regarded as one of the greatest anarchists, particularly within the Christian Anarchism. The law of God was superior to the law of men. According to Tolstoy, the basis of political power was physical violence. He criticized the fraud of government, the immortality of patriotism and the danger of militarism. Accordingly, the state was a consequence of the execution of the power of the strong over the weak. Thus, the correct answer is option B.

The correct answer is option D. Mikhail Bakunin is among the Revolutionary Anarchists and he is known as the founder of collectivist anarchism and violent anarchism.

The correct answer is E. Alienation is defined as the process through which the workers become foreign to their labor, species, and themselves.