Marxism is a perspective based around the ideas of Karl Marx. Similarly to Durkheim, Marx believed that it was possible to understand society scientifically and that this knowledge would point the way to a better society. However unlike functionalists, Marx did not see progress as a smooth and gradual evolution. Instead he saw historical change as a contradictory process, in which capitalism would increase human misery before giving way to a classless communist society in which human beings would be free to fulfill their potential. After Marx’s death, his ideas formed the basis of communism, a political movement that was enormously influential in shaping the modern world. Marx believed that, over time as the world developed and the forces of production grew, a division of labour developed, which eventually formed the two classes, a class that owns the means of production and a class of labourers. He argues that in the earliest stages of society, there were no classes, private ownership or exploitation, Everyone worked together and everything is shared. He identifies three successive class societies; The ancient society, the Feudal society and the Capitalist society. He also argues that capitalism means that their is an unfair exchange between the class that owns the means of production and the class of labourers. He argues that the labourers (proletariat) do not receive the value of the good that they produced, but only the cost of subsidence, and that the difference between the two is the surplus value; the profit that the capitalists make by selling these goods. Marx also argues that capitalism sows the seeds if its own destruction and that the proletariat are becoming ‘class conscious’. Marx argues that all ideas that the proletariat have are created by the capitalist class, and that they own all means of mental production. He predicted a revolution, he believed