Marxism Class Analysis Method And Its Applicability

Class analysis, as the basic analytical method of Marxism, was once deemed by us to be the principal and even the only method for understanding and evaluating social and historical phenomena. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11 th CCP Central Committee, the work focus of China’s central government shifted to the economy and class struggle gradually faded out from the official discourse system. Accompanying this trend, class analysis was replaced by hierarchy analysis and is no longer the principal analytical method. Nevertheless, with the deepening reform and the division of interest groups, class analysis entered people’s eyes again and caused controversies. Some people think that class analysis no longer suits China’s society today, while some hold that class analysis can present a better and deeper analysis of the roots of social contradictions and conflicts. For this reason, we have to come back and give a second thought to class analysis method of Marxism.Class analysis method of Marxism is the fundamental method for analyzing the underlying reasons of social and historical phenomena. The concept of class reflects people’s status in the relation chain of social production and it decides people’s stance and opinions. As class structure forms basic social structure, it is obligatory to investigate a society’s production relation, each class’ s possession of production materials, their positions in production relation as well as the distribution of products if we hope to analyze certain social and historical phenomena. Without social production relation, it is impossible to have an objective understanding of class and society. Class analysis can be used at both the macro level and the micro level. At the macro level, it can be adopted to analyze social structure and social changes; at the micro level, it can be applied to explain social and historical events. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels revealed the transitional process from feudalist society to capitalist society by analyzing the emergence of bourgeoisie. After presenting an analysis of the formation and growth of the proletariat as well as the conflicts and fight between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, they displayed their broad perspective of class analysis and concluded that the bourgeoisie was doomed to perish while the proletariat was doomed to triumph. In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx analyzed the political stances of each social class in France at that time through class analysis, revealing the reasons for the success of Louis Bonaparte and summarizing the importance of establishing a worker-peasant alliance. This is Marx’s micro application of class analysis. During China’s revolutionary time, class analysis also became an important theoretical weapon. Analysis of the Situation of Every Social Class in China by Mao Zedong is a theoretical model for the application of class analysis in analyzing China’s social status. Through the adoption of class analysis, Mao analyzed the features of each social class in China, identified the objects of the revolution, and established a unified front. Indeed, his correct application of class analysis is the key to the success of China’s revolution. The direct application of class analysis in the initial stage after the establishment of the PRC is On the correct handling of contradictions among the people is published, Mao correctly summarizes the problems in the process of socialist transformation, the country’s social situation is summed up in two contradictions, namely against conflicts and contradictions among the people. This thesis put forward that at the beginning of the founding of the party’s leaders on the use of class analysis method is reasonable and effectively, thus provided theoretical guidance for the socialist construction.After that period, Marx’s class analysis was mistakenly used. The main reason is that class struggle was no longer the major contradiction at that time but people still viewed everything from the perspective of class struggle. Since the reform and opening-up, class analysis has been marginalized. The essence is to undermine the explanatory force of class analysis, simply regarding this method as the same thing with class struggle. However, as a social analytical method, class analysis can fundamentally analyze the roots of social problems and is better than other methods to some extent.Today, China is in the primary stage of socialism as well as a transformation period of society, where social contradictions, social conflicts, and social inequality still exist. A large proportion of these issues are caused by the changes in the structure of social production relation. Therefore, class analysis still suits China’s society today and has some explanatory advantages in theory. From the macro perspective, it can help us get hold of the deep changes in China’s social structure; from the micro perspective, it can help us understand whether social production relation should be taken into consideration when we are faced with social contradictions and social conflicts. As long as we don’t rigidly and mechanically take class analysis as a perspective of class struggle, the application of class analysis would then help us detect the underlying reasons for social inequality, contradictions and conflicts so as to reduce the risks of social breakage, lower social contradictions, prevent group conflicts and eventually contribute to the construction of a harmonious socialist country.