Durkheim and Marx
... crime varies. “Imagine a community of saints in an exemplary and perfect monastery. In it crime as such will be unknown but faults that appear venial to the ordinary person will arouse the same scandal as does normal crime in ordinary consciences” (p.41). In that quote Durkheim paints a picture of a monastery and regular people as two different worlds that weigh crimes differently. For example, if a monk did not pray for that day the offense would equal the crime of stealing for a normal person. In that sense we can see how Durkheim feels about democracy. Just as he says that the degree of the crime dependent on the people’s values and morals in the same society, he sees that the people are indirectly contributing to democracy just by expressing a reaction about a certain crime as a whole. If enough people have the same reaction, the laws of the land would change just like democracy. Karl Marx starts his essay of communism but stating the undeniable existence of the two opposite sides of the economy in every society. Marx knew that this always would cause tension. “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed stood in constant opposition to one another...” (p.46). As an owners of factories the bourgeoisie wanted to make the work and wage ratio more efficient which intruded into the goals of the common workers which was to make as much money as possible. When the areas of interest crossed each other’s path, that was when emotions flared which called the government to step in to adjust the laws. Unfortunately for the proletariats, the bourgeoisie always had the advantage: “The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand…” (p.48). They always got the upper hand because of money. During the beginning of the modern industrialism, money made the man. “It has resolved personal worth into exchange value…” (p.48). The bourgeoisie with their substantial amounts of wealth built cities and towns. And in rural areas, they owned big factories that were making jobs for the people who occupied the cities and towns. The bourgeoisie as the creator of these environments posed massive amounts of power upon the people and ultimately the government. The poor workers of the bourgeoisie had little say in the democracy process and could not speak up through the corruption. This lack of equal power still exsists in our modern America. It is not a certain nation’s fault; this will al...