Analysis Of John E.Roemer’s Class Theory

As one of the core categories of Marxism, Class theory has been seen in a number of classical texts of Marx, in which rich and profound thoughts included. Since 19th century, with the rapid developments of science and technology, different characteristics and profound changes of capitalist society, compared with times of Marx’s, has been demonstrated in the areas such as politics, economy, and culture. So it is with the class structure of society. And it is not only within the capitalist society, but also the newborn socialist society has experienced great changes of class structure during its following developments. Facing with the new social problems, western intellectuals of Analytical Marxism applied those sophisticated tools of social sciences to study the classical theories of Marxism in succession, responding the new changes of times in their ways. They proposed massive new points for the purpose of enhancing the explanatory power of Marxism under the new situation. John E. Roemer, one of the celebrated theorists of Analytical Marxism, reinterpreted the class theory of Marxism through his unique angle and by using the analytical methods, meeting the challenges in the very circumstances.This article discusses and analyses the class theory of Roemer through interpreting its logic structure, including the basics and conditions of classes formation, the exploitation centered principles of class analysis, class and possession, class and exploitation, class struggles and easing class contradiction, and the construction of realizing social equality. It is concluded that the class theory of Roemer inherits and takes in some of the thoughts in Marx. And Roemer’s theory not only enriches the treasure house of Marx class theory,but also enhances the explanation ability of Marxism class theory to a certain extent by creating the theory structure and methodology. However, the theory of Roemer still departs even further from Marxist assertions. For the core thesis and the purpose of his theory has already gone beyond the category of Marxism, violating the implication of class theory in Marx. Therefore, the theory itself cannot be deemed as the continuity and development of Marxism class theory.