Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended in revolutionary reconstitution of society at large or in the common ruin of the contending class (Marx and Engel 1888, in Joyce 1995 p 21-22)

For Marx the great evil of societies past and present was the division of labour produced by historical economic development. He argues that throughout history the different ways of producing goods (Modes of Production), which he characterised as primitive communist, ancient, feudal, capitalist and communist modes had one thing in common, that the way in which these goods where produced is based on classes. Classes in, Marx's theory, meaning those who owned the means of production (their property) and those who do not own it. Class then was based on economics, on ownership and labo

It is the dictatorship of the official, not that of the worker, which, for the present at any rate, is on the advance. (Weber 1918 in Anderson and Ricci 1995 p 285)

For Marx then societies have an economic base and a social, political and cultural superstructure. (Anderson and Ricci, 1995, pg. 266)

Some common words found in the essay are:
Communist Manifesto, Max Weber, Marx Weber, Whereas Marx, Weber Marx's, Anderson Ricci, Society Jobs, Karl Marx, Neo Weberian, Classes Marx's, means production, ricci 1995, anderson ricci 1995, anderson ricci, marx's theory, market situation status, weber marx's, marx believed, life chances, intermediate class, market situation, status party, situation status party,
Approximate Word count = 1446
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)