A Study On Wright's Theory Of The New Changes In Contemporary Capitalist Class Relations

Eric Olin Wright is one of the representatives of contemporary Analytical Marxism. He argued Marx's class analysis method was still the basic method to analyze social realities and the relations among people in modern capitalist society. Yet, this method had not been clear and perfect in some places and needed to be further clarified, modified, and recruited. Furthermore, Wright thought Marx's conclusion was not right that the class relations in capitalist society will tend to be polarized, and the classical Marxist theory of class analysis should be improved in order to properly explain the new social situation. Wright implied Marx's idea of the polarized class relations was closely related to his form of class analysis. He thought Marx's explanations on class, being abstracted structural analysis, mostly belonged to macro theories and were short of refined empirical micro-study. Hence, Wright tried to clarify and re-explain many basic Marxist concepts within the framework of Marxist theory by absorbing and using other contemporary ideologists for reference. On the base of clarifying these concepts, with sociological and statistical methods he had done a great deal of empirical research on class structure, class conflict, class consciousness, class alliances etc, in contemporary developed capitalist society so as to reveal the nature of contemporary capitalist mode of production and social formation, and make his new judgment of the class relations and its trends in contemporary developed capitalist countries.Wright expounded his theory of the new changes in contemporary capitalist class relations through three aspects:1. Theory of the middle classes. Wright argued that the middle classes were being in contradictory locations within class relations. Through absorbing and modifying John Roemer's general theory of exploitation and class, he thought that the real capitalist society should be understood as involved in several sorts of exploitation, which, besides the exploitation based on capitalist means of production, contains two subordinate kinds of exploitations: one based on the control over organization assets and the other based on the ownership of monopolistic skills. Relative to the primary form of class struggle in capitalist society -- the struggle between labor and capital, the middle classes typically have contradictory interests. On the one hand, they are excluded from the ownership of the means of production and exploited just as the working class according to the mechanism of capitalist exploitation, on the other hand, because they have actual control over the organization and the skill assets, they have interests opposed to that of the working class. They are exploiters according to those subordinate mechanisms of exploitations. Thus, in capitalist society, these middle classes hold a contradictory location, or more precisely, contradictory location within exploitation relations. Hence he argued that the capitalist "middle classes" are salary-winners consisted of the organization and skill exploiters. This is his argument of the middle classes in capitalist society with class concept based on exploitation.2. Theory of a general framework for class analysis. This theory is based on the four assets proposed by Wright which have direct relation to production: labor, means of production, organization, skills/credentials. He believed that different mechanisms of exploitation were determined by different kinds of assets, and different class systems by the given social relations of production found on the property based on those assets. Wright had shown four kinds of class relations in this framework and discussed the logic line of each: Feudalism is a class system based on the unequal distribution of the ownership of labor force, the basic reason of taking such a society to be a feudal one being the unequal distribution of the labor force assets. Compared to feudalism, everyone in capitalism, at least in principle, owns the labor force of himself/herself. It is in this sense that capitalism can be regarded as a historically progressive force. But capitalism has raised the exploitation based on property relations in the means of production to an unprecedented level. Capitalists appropriated the exploitative surplus from workers through the market exchanges. Statism is a post-capitalist social formation. The corresponding class relation is therefore between managers/bureaucrats—those who control organization assets—and non-managers. This society does not necessarily eliminate the exploitations generated from controlling over organization and skill assets, yet may considerably strengthen and deepen the inequalities of the distribution of such assets indeed. Socialism is founded on the revolutionary transformation of statist society, the task of which revolves around the equalization of actual economic controlling over organization assets. Wright argued that in socialism the equalization of organization assets and the eradication of class relations rooted in organization exploitation would not in itself eliminate exploitation based on skills. Such exploitation would remain a central feature of socialism. Socialism is a society in which the ruling class is distinct from the exploiting ones, and a kind of'social relation'in a considerably weak sense. Socialism is even a society with exploitation but without fully constituted classes in contrast to statism.3. Theory of contemporary capitalist class structure.Based on the concept of contradictory location within class relations and the theory of a general framework for class analysis, Wright divided the society into two segments: one for the owners of the means of production and the other for the non-owners, and then, compartmentalized various kinds within the wage-earner section by the two subordinate relations of exploitation. He divided class locations within capitalist class structure into 12 types, thereby mapping out the broad contours of the class structure of contemporary capitalism. Through this argument Wright had implied the complexity of the class structure of contemporary capitalism, and questioned the theory of class structure proposed by Marx which polarized towards two basic classes in capitalism.In Wright's theory of the new changes in class relations of contemporary capitalism, from the theory of the contradictory location of the middle classes to that of a general framework for class analysis, and then to that of class structure of contemporary capitalism, the logic sequence embodies progression. It can be said that his theory of contemporary capitalist class structure is the core of his whole class theory, in order to clearly state this theory, he proposed the theory of the contradictory location of the middle classes and that of a general framework for class analysis as premise.In order to prove that his theory of class structure was consistent with the reality of contemporary capitalist class relations, Wright used sociological methods to carry out empirical investigation into the class structure in a fairly long period. On the one hand, through the investigation Wright tried to confirm the rationality and universality of this theory in contemporary developed capitalist countries. On the other hand, he wanted to reveal the complexity of contemporary capitalist class structure through the investigation of the differentia between capitalist countries and the reasons for it. Wright's work was carried out mainly through three aspects: Firstly, he pointed out the concept boundary between the working class and non-working class wage earners in order to confirm the rationality of the concept of class and that of the contradictory location within class relations based on exploitation. Secondly, he implied the complexity of contemporary capitalist class structure through the empirical research on the differentia in class structure between the United States and Sweden and through the analysis of the reasons for such differentia. Furthermore he discussed the role of such factors as family, gender, age, race, enterprise distribution, political parties and trade unions, etc. on the differentia in class structure. Finally, on the base of these empirical researches he had conducted empirical adjudication of the causal relationship between class structure and class consciousness.It should be noted that although Wright has made outstanding contributions to the development of Marxist class theory with his theory of new changes in contemporary capitalist class relations, there are still certain logical deficiencies in his class theory: the theory of exploitation remains much in question as the base of the theory of the middle class; his analysis of the significance of the contradictory location of the middle classes in capitalist society also lacks in strong foundation; his discussion on the relationship between class structure and class consciousness is still theoretically flawed; his class theory is short of systematical research. Meanwhile, his empirical research also has certain one-sidedness in data.Wright's class theory has great significance in practice to our understanding of the new changes in class relations of contemporary capitalism and the development of Marxism according to the new changes:Firstly, Wright'theory of the new changes in contemporary capitalist class relations will enable our understanding of this class structure to be founded on more complete analytical data, and make us have a more accurate knowledge and understanding about the non-applicability of Marx's prediction in his class theory of polarized class relations in capitalism.Secondly, in order to make his class theory more clear, having logical clues and more convincing, Wright has made use of many sorts of contemporary complex analytical methods in social sciences, consequently, he achieved pluralism in methods for Marxist study. It is the use of these new researching methods and thinking that makes Wright'class theory have several original points in many ways and give a refreshing answer to the problems which Marxist class theory has met in contemporary capitalist society. Undoubtedly, Wright's new research methodology is a useful exploration to the development of Marxism in the contemporary era.Thirdly, his class theory has included a large number of first-hand data from the investigation, which just embodies the basic principles of Marxist theory -- the principle of integrating theory with practice.Lastly, although Wright's class theory primarily aimed at the class reality in contemporary capitalist society, his particular approach in thinking and reasonable consequence is much worthy of absorbing and using in our society stratification research.