How Did Marx Weber And Foucault Determine The Exercise Of Power

Thesis Statement: Marx, Weber, and Foucault define the state through the lens of class, violence and power while claiming that the state plays a vital role in organizing society, controlling the population and reproducing its authority. I will argue that the state is a synthesis of these ideas and can be conceptualized through its relationship with the citizens and its exercise of power.
Body 1: Marx and his Argument
Topic Sentence: Karl Marx conceptualizes the state in relation to class struggle and he believes the state exists to help the bourgeoisie gain profit.
1. Marx asserts in The Communist Manifesto, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx 1848:14).
-Capitalism and the pressure of the …show more content…
If the state is not efficient in helping the proletariats and does not prevent the bourgeoisie from exploiting the working class, then the state must wither away for there to be a classless society.
Body 2: Weber and his Argument
Topic Sentence: Weber asserts the state is constantly reproducing and enforcing its power in a given territory.
1. The state is a unit that successfully claims the monopoly over the use of legitimate coercive power (Weber 1919:2).
-Weber illustrates that the state has power because the people consent to its authority. In the Weberian sense, the military is a violent tool the state controls. By having control over the use of the legitimate use of power and by using it over enemies, the state is reproducing its power and authority.
2. In trying to define bureaucracy Weber conveys, “the separation of the administrative staff, of the administrative officials, and of the workers from the material means of administrative organization is completed...the attempt to inaugurate the expropriation of this expropriator of the political means, and therewith of political power” (Weber