The History and Ideas of Marxism: The Relevance for OR

The History and Ideas of Marxism: The Relevance for OR

Author(s): R. J. Ormerod

Reviewed work(s):

Source: The Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 59, No. 12 (Dec., 2008), pp. 15731590

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Journal of the Operational

Research

Society

59,

(2008)

1573-1590

2008 Operational

?

Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved. 0160-5682/08

jors

The history and ideas of Marxism:

the relevance for OR

RJ Ormerod*

University

of Warwick, Coventry, UK

The paper examines the origins of Marxism in Europe in the second half of the 19th century in the context of

the industrial and political revolutions of the previous century. The philosophical, economic, social and ethical

ideas of Marxism are explained and critiqued. It is suggested that although many of Marx's predictions have

proved wrong and the application of his ideas often disastrous, his concern for the exploited and his emphasis

on the dynamic of change still has relevance today for OR. The paper explores where that relevance lies and

how advantage might be taken of the insights Marx's analysis of society offers.

Journal of the Operational Research Society (2008) 59, 1573-1590. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602495

Published online 3 October 2007

philosophy of OR; history of ideas;Marxism; process of OR

Keywords:

Introduction

suggests where

This is the second in a series of papers that describes the his

tory and ideas of major intellectual movements and explores

their relevance for OR today. The first paper took as its sub

ject pragmatism (Ormerod, 2006). The current paper exam

inesMarxism, the philosophy, ideology and social theorizing

of Karl Marx and his followers. Isaiah Berlin concluded that,

'no thinker in the nineteenth century has had so direct, de

liberate and powerful influence upon mankind as Karl Marx'

(Berlin, 1948, p 1).Marx lived at a time of social unrest and

nationalistic

fervour.

He

was

a revolutionary

and

sought

create an intellectual framework to support workers

intent.

revolutionary

The

framework

was

to be based

to

in their

on a sci

entific understanding of the historical development of the con

ditions of society and their inevitable consequences.

These

ideas spread rapidly after his death; by the second half of the

20th century much of the world was governed by commun

ist

regimes

forms

of

based

on Marxist

government

In

ideology.

prevailed

and

communist

the West,

other

are

regimes

now losing political control of countries they once dominated.

However,

this

demise

is by

no means

universal

and Marxism

continues to be influential in the world of ideas.

Marxism has featured in a number of OR publications about

the nature and role of OR and has been claimed in support

of some methodologies;

but most practitioners reject Marxist

ideology

as wrong

headed,

extreme

or

too

destructive.

How

ever, there is a danger of losing sight of Marx's innovative

attempts to theorize about society: how did he go about this

difficult task and what conclusions did he reach? The paper

offers a brief account of the development of Marxism and

RJ Ormerod,

26 Coulsdon

*Correspondence:

EX10 9JP, UK.

E-mail:

richard@rormerod.freeserve.co.uk

Road,

Sidmouth,

Devon

The

paper

can

its relevance might

also

be

read

as an

lie for OR practitioners.

introduction

to one

source

of critical thinking, setting out Marxism's

roots and conse

quences, its merits and limitations. From an OR perspective

three questions are addressed. How can OR be understood

today from aMarxist perspective? What are the implications

ideas for the practice of OR? How can Marx's

of

analysis

society be utilized within an OR intervention?

Marx was one of the first social analysts to work with the

of Marxist

ideas of Enlightenment writers, attempting to combine the

philosophical and empirical traditions into an overall struc

ture of thought that makes theoretical sense and is empiri

cally rooted. His theoretical approach combines observation

and reason, and many of his conclusions can be subjected

to empirical tests. Marx's system combines a philosophical

approach (the dialectic) with an analysis of history (material

ism) and politics (socialism) and integrates these into an over

all

system

of

political

economy,

rooted

in the

economics

of

Smith and Ricardo. This theoretical framework provides an

explanation for the economic, social and political structures

of society and how they change (Gingrich, 2006).

Marx set out his intellectual framework in his book Das

Kapital, Volume I (Marx, 1867) was published in his lifetime,

Volumes II and III being completed and published by his

collaborator Friedrich Engels after his death. The original

texts of Marx (and his collaborators) are, on the whole, direct

and easy to comprehend. Marx and Engels set out the main

thrust of their revolutionary intent in the Communist Mani

is assertive,

(Marx and Engels, 1848). The manifesto

argumentative, and fizzles with revolutionary zeal. Its main

message was summarized after Marx's death by his daughter

as follows:

This manifesto opens with a review of the existing con

ditions of society. It goes on to show how gradually the old

festo

Journal of the Operational Research Society Vol. 59, No. 12

1574

feudal

of

division

classes

has

and

disappeared,

how

modern

Rhineland,

of the capital

society is divided simply into two classes?that

ists or bourgeois class, and that of the proletariat; of the expro

priators and expropriated; of the bourgeois class possessing

wealth and power and producing nothing, of the labor-class

that produces wealth but possesses nothing. The bourgeoisie,

after using the proletariat to fight its political battles against

feudalism, has used the power thus acquired to enslave the

proletariat' (Marx, 1883).

The next sections of the paper introduce Marx and Engels

and describe the historical and social context of the time. The

following four sections explain Marx's theories on philosophy,

economics, politics and ethics. Subsequent developments and

criticism of Marxism are then described. Finally, the role of

Marxism

in the development of OR in the UK is outlined

followed by a discussion of the implications for OR today.

Throughout the paper use is made of various reference

books without

further citation including the Chambers

the Chambers Biographical

of World History,

the Oxford Dictionary

and the

of Quotations,

In particular, use has been

Oxford Companion to Philosophy.

made of those entries in the latter that describe Marxism and

the contributions of its precursors, originators and subsequent

developers. (P Singer on Hegel; A Wood on Marx and Engels;

D McLellan on Marxism; MJ Inwood on Hegelianism and the

Dictionary

Dictionary,

Frankfurt

on Habermas).

and C Norris

school;

In researching

the history and ideas of Marxism significant use is made of

Berlin (1948), Bottomore (1991), Carew Hunt (1950), Gid

dens and Held (1982), Gingrich (2006), Jay (1973), Rattansi

(1982) and Tucker (2002). Fuller accounts of Marxism can

be

in

found

these

and

course, in the writings

attracts

Marxism

No

tagonism.

other

many

of Marx

fierce

satisfy

both

of

and,

themselves.

and

commitment

can

account

texts

standard

and Engels

sides

of

an

fierce

equally

the argument.

The paper is intended to inform those not familiar with the

subject, and to stimulate interest by exploring the history of

Marx's

of

theories,

them.

attempts

ognize

their

subsequent

It is in this

to draw

this

argumentative

some

conclusions

as a dialectical

process

and

impact,

sense

a

some

Marx

of which

we

he would approve without necessarily

it

Further,

would

can

presume

approving the synthesis

and Engels

Berlin

under the in

(changing from law to philosophy)

of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872),

Bruno Bauer

and the Young (or Left) Hegelian movement.

(1809-1882),

He completed his doctorate in philosophy in 1841 but the

fluence

Hegelians

came

under

attack

from

each

country

him

forcing

(Marx and Engels, 1848). In the same year Marx

Manifesto

was expelled from Prussian territories and after a brief spell

in Paris he took up residence in London where he lived in

poverty (Berlin, 1948, pp 175-189). Throughout the 1850s

and 1860s, when not confined to bed by illness, Marx regu

larly spent 10 h a day in the library of the British Museum

studying and writing. There he had access to the results of

Parliamentary inquiries and the history of the introduction

of factory legislation in Britain (which, for instance, limited

working

hours

in nearly

all manufacturing

or

cottage

indus

tries to 60 h per week for women and young people under

18, and to 39 h for children under 13). These provided ample

material spanning almost 40 years on the actual relations

capital and labour as they had reached in

England (Engels, 1869).

Engels hoped for a career in literature but his father, a tex

tile manufacturer, insisted that he work in the family business.

He was attracted to Young Hegelian radicalism while doing

military service in Berlin. After participating in the unsuc

existing between

cessful Paris revolution of 1848, Engels moved toManchester

where he worked in the family business until 1869 and pro

duced a series of writings on history, politics, and philosophy.

After Marx's death in 1883 he devoted the last 10 years of

his life to the posthumous publication of the second and third

volumes of Marx's Das Kapital (Capital). Engels acknowl

edged Marx to be the more profound and original member

of the partnership. He helped popularize the thought of his

friend and extended it to the realms of science and philoso

phy. However, some of the principal doctrines identified with

Marxism

are more

The historical

Engels

than Marx.

and social context

Marx's writing was strongly influenced by what he observed

in 19th century Europe: the intellectual changes of the en

lightenment, the technological developments of the indus

trial revolution, the political struggles in the aftermath of

the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions, and

the development

Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) was the son of a successful

Jewish lawyer of conservative political views who converted

to Christianity. He studied at the Universities of Bonn and

young

Belgium,

rec

reached.

Marx

and

criticisms

critique.

for OR.

France

to leave. In 1844, while in Paris, Marx was introduced both

to the working-class movement and to the study of political

In 1848 Marx

economy by Friedrich Engels (1820-1895).

and Engels played a key role in founding the Communist

League and as part of its activities wrote the Communist

the government

and

Marx lost all chance of an academic career in philosophy.

Between 1842 and 1848 he edited radical publications in the

of global

trade and empire dominated

by

Europe.

The Enlightenment

Marx was born into a Europe whose intellectual landscape

had been completely reshaped by the Enlightenment.

The

Renaissance

in the 14th and 15th century and the Reforma

tion in the 16th century, both vast and fundamental changes

in western civilization, had paved the way for the Scien

tific Revolution of the 17th century and the Enlightenment of

the 18th century (approximately bracketed by the 'Glorious

RJ Ormerod?The history and ideas of Marxism

of 1688 and the French Revolution of 1789).

Prior to the Enlightenment Europe was a theologically con

ceived and ordered regional society, based on hierarchy and

ecclesiastical authority and a culture rooted in the sacred,

Revolution'

and

attacked

and kinship. By contrast, the Enlightenment

magic,

the

severed

roots

of

traditional

culture,

European

secu

larized all institutions and ideas, and (intellectually, and to a

degree in practice) effectively demolished all legitimation of

monarchy,

woman's

aristocracy,

to man,

subordination

eccle

siastical authority, and slavery. These were replaced with the

principles of universality, equality and democracy (Israel,

2001, p vi).

the Enlightenment is depicted as a projec

Conventionally,

tion of French ideas, especially those of Descartes, Bayle,

Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, d'Holbach and

Rousseau. Another view casts the Enlightenment as an in

tellectual reorientation chiefly inspired by English ideas, es

pecially those of Locke and Newton but also Francis Bacon,

Bentham, Gibbon, Hume and Adam Smith. Given the impor

tance of the German philosophers Spinoza and Kant and the

contribution of some Italian thinkers perhaps a better view

is that it was a pan-European movement

French

However,

was

(Israel, 2001, p v).

the pan-European

lingua

of

franca

the

day, and the French 'philosophes' provided the distribution

mechanism for Enlightenment

ideas, aided by the new tech

nology of printing.

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) made

impassioned pleas for due weight be given to feelings and the

moral sense (Roberts, 2002, p 694). In 1762 he published

Du Contract Social (translated as A Treatise on the Social

Contract) in which every individual is made to surrender his

rights totally to the collective 'general will', the sole source

The Genevan

of legitimate sovereignty and by definition the common good.

His text, with its slogan 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity', be

came the bible of the French Revolution and of progressive

movements

generally. In it he says 'L'homme est n? libre,

et partout il est dans les fers'?'Man

is born free, yet every

where he is in chains'.

John Locke (1632-1704)

taught that the mind at birth was

a blank sheet (tabula rasa) and that ideas were obtained

from

exclusively

mind

experienced

flowed,

on

sense

for

society's

moral

on

to

the content

regulate

and

material

values

arose

From this many

pain and pleasure.

instance,

duty

experience:

conduct

as

the

ideas

of education,

conditions

(Roberts,

1575

and industrial revolution

Agricultural

Historians of Britain classically apply the term industrial rev

The steady advance of

olution to the period 1750-1850.

the more

and

agriculture

dramatic

of manufac

development

turing industry gave rise to an increasingly wealthy, urban

ized society geared to progress and change. Britain mainly

imported raw materials and exported manufactured goods.

The rise in agricultural output and productivity resulted from

a better

of husbandry

knowledge

and

enclosure

rotation,

crop

of the open medieval fields with their narrow strips, and lat

terly from technical progress. The result was sufficient food

to sustain population growth, disappearance of the traditional

peasant, and the availability of surplus labour to meet the

demands

growing

of

construction,

and

manufacturing

indus

try. These improvements in agriculture spread to continen

tal Europe. By 1850 peasants tied to the soil and obligatory

labour had disappeared from most of Europe, with Russia

being the major exception (Roberts, 2002, p 708).

Within a century and a half or so, societies of peasants

and

craftsmen

turned

Human

bookkeepers.

chines

driven

by

into

and

from

power

of machine-tenders

societies

animal

was

labour

sources.

other

and

by ma

replaced

in

Extractive

dustries grew. Manufacturing became much more specialized

and more productive (for instance, the Lancashire cotton in

dustry). Industrialization implied new sorts of towns, new

schools and new forms of higher learning; this resulted very

quickly in new patterns of daily existence and living together.

The transformation was made possible by the gradual build

up of capital in earlier periods, the construction of canals and

railways, the accumulation of knowledge (including science),

and the development of technology based on years of experi

ence

of

All

craftsmen.

during Marx's

these

were

developments

underway

lifetime.

Trade and empires

of the capital required to initiate the self-sustaining

growth of the Industrial Revolution had been accumulated by

Much

trade

and

by

overseas

plantations

manned

by

slaves

(Roberts,

2002, p 560). Europe had produced wealth on an unprece

dented scale; it dominated the rest of the globe as no previous

civilization had ever done. Much of this domination was po

litical, a matter of direct rule; large areas of the world had

been

peopled

by

European

stock.

As

for

the

non-European

2002, p 687) and on the relativity of knowledge and belief

(beliefs depended on the experience of particular individu

als). The new prestige of science seemed to promise that the

observations of the senses were the way forward to knowl

edge. There grew in European man a new confidence in the

countries, which were still formally and politically indepen

dent of Europe, most of them had in practice to defer to Eu

power of the mind and a conviction that human knowledge,

rationality, wealth, civilization and control over nature would

progress. The Enlightenment drew its strength primarily from

new supplies of food from the USA, Canada, Australia, New

In return these countries

Zealand, Argentina and Uruguay.

had an appetite for the goods being produced in the large

new factories in Europe. Commerce and Empire went hand

the

evident

advance

of

production,

trade

and

the

economic

scientific rationality believed to be inevitably associated with

both (Hobsbawm, 1962, p 20).

ropean wishes (Roberts, 2002, pp 697-698).

The growing population of Europe was

emigration,

advances

in agriculture,

and

sustained

the opening

of

by

vast

in hand, with the imperial country controlling the trade

flows and the ships they were carried in. The key to global

Journal of the Operational Research Society Vol. 59, No. 12

1576

was

empire

to establish

and maintain

naval

to protect

power

shipping and to ensure ports were kept open for

trade. Not all colonies and countries acquiesced in this, some

The progress

of history

commercial

revolted,

in America.

notably

Political

the exception of Britain, which had its revolution in the

17th century, Europe in the 18th century was ruled by abso

lute monarchs buttressed by hereditary nobles, the orthodoxy

of the church, and other institutions. In the latter part of the

century the obvious international success of capitalist British

power led most such monarchs (or rather their advisors) to

of

programmes

economic,

modernization.

administrative

social,

However,

and

some

despite

mon

archs adopting modernist and innovatory stances, they found it

impossible to break free from the hierarchy of landed nobles

(there were some exceptions to this, Denmark for instance).

What did abolish agrarian feudal relations all over Western

and Central Europe was the French Revolution (Hobsbawm,

1962, pp 22-24). To prevent a second French Revolution or

a general revolution on the French model was the supreme

object of all the powers which had just spent more than 20

years defeating the first in the Napoleonic War. Neverthe

there

less,

were

waves

of

revolution

in

the western

world

between 1815 and 1848 (Hobsbawm,

1962, pp 109-110).

The biggest of these, that of 1848, broke out almost simulta

in France,

neously

the whole

of

the German

Italy,

states,

most

of the Hapsburg Empire and Switzerland. There has never

been anything closer to the world-revolution

of which the

insurrectionaries of the period dreamt than this spontaneous

and

general

In

conflagration.

and heralded

(Hobsbawm,

the

the gigantic economic

1962, p 112).

The roots of Marx's

concerned

end

it was

not

successful

leap forward after 1851

labour

and

social

and

fragmen

life produced by the division

the

by

a

to recreate

he wanted

differentiation;

experience

formation

an

of

inte

grated community. In his view the true history of humankind

is the history of consciousness,

spirit, or philosophy. Each

historical era is distinctive and human society does progress.

For Hegel, itwas important for individuals to be in tune with

ideas

these

historical

of

rather

than

reverse.

the

for Marx

However,

His

an essential

became

progress

history.

rial and social factors?class

and human labour?rather

of

view

aspect

comes

progress

and

stages

of Marx's

view

mate

from

struggles, technological change,

than ideas (Rattansi, 1982, p 27;

Tucker, 2002, p 57).

Hegel considered Germanic culture a higher and perhaps

ultimate synthesis of its predecessors, especially the cultures

of Greece and Rome, and the most perfect political frame

work yet attained by men (Berlin, 1948, p 63). He argued

that it was only philosophically

educated officials that pos

sessed a developed insight into the unity of the individual

human being and the state. In contrast, the Young Hegelians

held that all citizens could acquire this, a much more radi

cal view. They claimed that only the 'rational was real'; the

'actual'

is often

full

of

anachronisms

inconsistencies,

and

blind unreason.

They concluded that radical transformation

may be necessary in order to create institutions that are in

accord with the dictates of reason (Berlin, 1948, pp 63-64).

The dialectic

For Hegel

social, and individual change and

philosophical,

development emerge from the struggle with ideas (Tucker,

2002, pp 57-58); we develop understanding only through op

posites, and knowledge develops through negation and con

and

The major intellectual influences on Marx were Enlighten

ment ideas, German philosophy, the French socialists, and the

English and Scottish political economists. Marx synthesized

these to develop a new system of thought (Rattansi, 1982,

the disorganization

and social

personal

tradiction.

philosophy

about

tation of personal

coherent

revolutions

intellectual

Hegel

of

With

attempt

was

Hegel

synthesis,

the

developed

the

dialectical

notion

of

thesis,

antithesis,

In contrast,

process.

ar

Marx

gued that the history of thought, ideas, and ideology were

reflection

of developments

talk of Marx

in the material

a

some

Thus

and standing

dialectic

taking Hegel's

world.

it on its

head.

p49).

On labour

and Marx's

idealism

Hegel's

materialism

For

When Marx was attending university in Germany the ideas of

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) were dominant.

For Hegel, reality consisted inminds or ideas. Marx rejected

Hegel's idealism preferring materialism,

that views the social world as developing

of

humans

to

the natural

world.

a system of thought

from the relationship

Materialism

examines

how

individuals, groups, and institutions act and interact with each

other in social relationships. Hegel looked on class struggles

(between lord and bondsman) in a very abstract manner, while

Marx

saw classes

2002, pp 88-89).

struggling

in the material world

(Tucker,

labour

Hegel,

is a central

feature

of

human

existence

through which man comes to know and understand his world;

it is a liberating activity (Rattansi, 1982, p 29). Marx adopts

a similar approach; labour is essential to humanity in defin

ing humanity (as opposed to non-human animals), and in

developing

of

labour

potential

activity

society.

and

the

In looking at class relationships,

products

of

labour

are

crucial.

(and human nature) is the purposeful

that

transforms

nature

into

useful

objects

the use

Human

and creative

and

pro

vides the means by which humanity can achieve freedom.

The problem with capitalism is that much of this potential is

denied

to workers

and

turned

against

them.

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