MARX Vs WEBER ON SOCIAL CLASS Karl Marx (1818-83) was a socialist who hoped for a fairer society. For Marx class struggle was at the heart of social change. He writes, The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now …showed first 75 words of 1387 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1387 total…divided, thus creating a greatly more diverse class structure. The Neo Weberian argument would be that there is a meritocracy or open society in which those who have ability and work hard can move upwards, neo Marxists however, would argue that the ownership of significant wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a relatively small group. Even though people may progress upwards, they have little chance of joining the ‘upper class’ who own the wealth.