On the Quest for Class and Exploitation Theory

Seiyama Kazuo

doi:10.7129/jject.5.1

'Class' has been a kind of obsession in modern societies. For any social theory it is a prerequisite to be 'social' that it shows a clear and unambiguous view on class. However, inspite of many theoreticians' enthusiastic quest for class for two centuries, the contemporary state of class theories seems to be rather chaotic and opaque.<BR>The two main streams, Marxian and Weberian, of class theory are differentiated by whether classes are conceived as basically related through 'exploitation'. Marxian theories based on the labor value theory think 'yes', and Weberians think that class relations are multidimensional without any 'absolute anta-gonisms' among them. In this respect, Marxian theories have an advantage in drawing a plain and impressive picture on modern social structure.<BR>Needless to say, the plausibility of the picture has declined. Apart from the well known failure of the prediction that class struggles will sooner or later develop, the Marxian theorists have had to face the two theoretical problems : the class position of middle class and the class situation in socialist societies. Among various attempts to solve these problems from Marxian position, Roemer's work seems worth examining in detail. Using activity analysis models in economics, Roemer investigated conditions on which Class Exploitation Correspondence Principle holds. In consequence, rejecting the labor value theory, he proposed a new definition of exploitation on a game-theoretical scheme, and gave three types of exploitation, namely feudal, capitalistic, and socialistic. This conceptualization was utilized by Wright in his new definition of class.<BR>These attempts of new conceptualizations of class and exploitation are examined in this paper, and shown to be hardly tenable. With the difficulty of establishing an unproblematic concept of class exploitation, it is suggested that class is rather a subjective phenomenon and that the emergence of classes depends on various social contingents.

On the Quest for Class and Exploitation Theory

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