Class, Surplus, and the Division of Labour : A Post-Marxian Exploration

The traditional Marxian picture of a two-class polarisation seems far removed from today's diverse society. Re-examining the very foundations of the Marxian theory in the process, the author argues that important critiques can fruitfully be understood and to accomplish the goal, he extends the traditional concepts in innovative and original ways.

Marx expected the working class to create ''a movement of immense majority, in the interests of immense majority''. However, there is not and never has been such a movement. At least a part of the reason is that the traditional Marxist picture of a two-class polarisation bears little resemblance to the diverse and complex society of today''s Western world. In this book, Michal Polak attempts to move beyond the austerity of the two-class model to come closer to the empirical realities. In the process, the author re-examines the very foundations of the Marxist theory, demonstrating how an important critique of the theory can in fact be fruitfully interpreted as a generalisation of it. While remaining true to the Marxian spirit, he comes up with original and innovative extensions of the traditional concepts, which finally allow for the explanation of the diverse class map of the advance capitalist societies.