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Conflict Theory

Corey Ware

The conflict theory was developed by Karl Marx in order to figure out what brings about civilization. Civilization is brought out by Marx as an aspect that is influenced by conflicts. According to Karl Marx, there are two social classes of people; capitalists and the working class. These two classes represent the ruling class as well as the subject class.

Karl Marx explained that the subject class is always under the ruling class. The ruling class controls all the aspects of productivity. This can be further explained by what happened during the colonial period. During that time, the ruling class was more domineering and they used their influence to control the rest of the society. This group of individuals can also be defined as the capitalists. The capitalists control and have direct access to all the social and political positions.

The working class is misused by the capitalists in order to produce and generate huge amounts of income for the ruling class (Shepard, 2009, p. 22). According to the theory, individuals are always involved in conflicts in order to control others. This means that individuals will always struggle to reach the ruling class in order to earn more money, to accumulate enough capital that might help them rule the rest of the community.

There are many benefits that are associated to the ruling class. One of them is that these individuals have total control over many resources. This means that the rest of the society has to depend on individual influence in order to carry out their intended activities. By keeping the working class enslaved, capitalists dominate in all the fields within which they operate. Taking an example of the slavery period, most of the Africans were taken as slaves in order to benefit the westerners. Due to this, most of the Africans were reduced to

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