What Is Proletariat: Political Philosophy

Direct Answer

The proletariat is the class of wage laborers in capitalist society who do not own the means of production -- the factories, machinery, land, and resources that are necessary to produce goods -- and who must therefore sell their labor power to the capitalist class in order to survive. In Marxist theory, the proletariat is not merely one class among others but the revolutionary class whose historical mission is to overthrow the capitalist system and establish a classless, communist society.

The term "proletariat" comes from ancient Rome, where the proletarii were the lowest class of citizens who served the state only by producing offspring (proles). Marx and Engels adopted the term to describe the modern working class under capitalism, emphasizing that the proletariat's only source of wealth is its labor power and its ability to reproduce itself.

The proletariat is defined in contrast to the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class that owns the means of production. The relationship between these two classes is the central dynamic of capitalist society. The bourgeoisie extracts surplus value from the labor of the proletariat, paying workers only enough to subsist while keeping the remainder as profit. This relationship of exploitation generates the class conflict that Marx believed would ultimately lead to the overthrow of capitalism.

Historical Context

The concept of the proletariat emerged in the context of the Industrial Revolution, which transformed European society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The enclosure of common lands, the mechanization of agriculture, and the growth of factories created a new class of landless laborers who had no choice but to work for wages in the new industrial enterprises. This was the proletariat.

Marx and Engels provided the first systematic analysis of the proletariat as a social class. In The Communist Manifesto (1848), they described the proletariat as "a class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital." The proletariat is the product of capitalism itself: capitalism creates the working class, concentrates it in factories and cities, organizes it through the discipline of industrial production, and gives it the power to overthrow the system.

Marx's analysis of the proletariat developed in sophistication over his career. In his early writings, particularly the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx focused on the concept of alienation. The worker under capitalism, Marx argued, is alienated from the product of his labor (which belongs to the capitalist), from the process of labor (which is controlled by the capitalist), from his species-being (his capacity for free, creative, conscious activity), and from other human beings (who are reduced to competitors or instruments).

In his mature work, particularly Capital (1867), Marx provided a more rigorous economic analysis of the proletariat's position within the capitalist system. He argued that the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of socially necessary labor time required to produce it, and that the capitalist extracts surplus value by paying the worker less than the value the worker produces. This exploitation is not a matter of unfairness or cheating but is built into the very structure of the capitalist wage relation.

Philosophical Perspectives

The concept of the proletariat is central to several key debates in Marxist theory. The first concerns the distinction between a "class in itself" and a "class for itself." A class in itself is a group of people who share the same objective position in the relations of production. A class for itself is a group that has developed class consciousness -- the awareness of its shared interests and its opposition to the exploiting class. The proletariat exists as a class in itself under capitalism, but it must become a class for itself through political struggle and education in order to fulfill its revolutionary potential.

The second debate concerns the relationship between the proletariat and other classes and social groups. Marx's theory identifies the proletariat as the agent of revolutionary change, but critics have argued that this focus on the industrial working class neglects other forms of oppression and other potential agents of social transformation. Feminists have argued that the category of the proletariat is gendered and that women's unpaid labor in the home is essential to the reproduction of capitalism. Postcolonial theorists have argued that Marx's analysis of class is Eurocentric and does not adequately account for the divisions created by colonialism and imperialism.

The third debate concerns the concept of alienation. Marx argued that the overcoming of alienation is a central goal of communism. In a communist society, workers would no longer be alienated from their labor, because they would collectively control the means of production and the products of their labor. The division of labor that confines individuals to a single, repetitive occupation would be abolished, and people would be able to develop their full range of human capacities.

Modern Reflection

The concept of the proletariat has been the subject of extensive debate in the twenty-first century. The decline of the industrial working class in advanced capitalist economies has led some to question whether the proletariat can still be the agent of revolutionary change that Marx envisioned. The growth of the service sector, the rise of platform capitalism, the increasing precarity of work, and the globalization of production have transformed the nature of the working class.

Some theorists argue that the concept of the proletariat must be expanded to include the "precariat" -- the growing class of workers in precarious, temporary, and informal employment, who lack the security and stability that characterized the traditional industrial working class. Others argue that the concept of the proletariat remains relevant but must be understood in global terms: the proletariat of the twenty-first century is not the factory worker in Detroit or Manchester but the migrant worker, the gig worker, the factory worker in the Global South, and the vast army of precarious laborers who produce the goods and services of global capitalism.

The question of class consciousness also remains central. Despite the objective conditions of exploitation that Marx analyzed, the working class in many countries has not developed the revolutionary consciousness that Marx predicted. The reasons for this are complex and include the fragmentation of the working class, the influence of nationalism and identity politics, the role of the media and popular culture in manufacturing consent, and the success of capitalism in delivering material improvements to at least some sections of the working class. The gap between the objective position of the proletariat and its subjective consciousness remains one of the central problems of Marxist theory and practice.