Anul III, nr. 5, octombrie 2012
4. Class conflicts A third approach has taken a central place in the intellectual and ideological debates of the 20th century, standing out by its placing the utmost importance on class conflicts in the evolution of our societies. The arguments put forward may be easily evinced if one takes into account for instance the explanation provided by Marx to social classes and class struggle. According to Marx, societies are divided in classes with uneven resources. Since there are such marked illegalities, there are also interest conflicts “incorporated” into the social system. These interest conflicts, when they reach a certain point, turn into active class struggle, which may generate processes of radical change. That is why, according to some of his interpreters, Marx insisted on the fact that these conflicts, originating in people’s divergent interests, are not accidents of social life (Sitton, 1996, p. 358) within each society, and that there are permanent conflicts in any society. Thus, he evinced the idea of conflict as first and foremost a conflict of interests, and finally a separation line shall appear between those desiring change and those opposing it. Also, as seen before, Marxist theory considers that the category of social conflicts only includes those conflicts that constitute the main driving force of social change. In Marxist logic, social conflicts are the expression of a contradictory mode of production, first contributing to the latter’s stimulation, only to end in bringing about its disappearance. To emphasize this idea in other words, Marx shows that the capitalist production is alive due to the contradictions of the capitalist society, and develops by means of social conflicts. This Marxist conception on the relation between social classes and social conflicts is thoroughly analysed by the sociologists of the past century, who saw a relation between either social conflicts and the authority relation, or social conflicts and labour conflicts, or even social conflicts and the postindustrial society. Discussing the opposition between the classic theories of conflict as the explanatory element of social change, it seems the more justified if one takes into account that Marx’s perspective, which is at the basis of many contemporary theories of social conflict, does not insist too much on the confrontation between social groups. It may 74