Conclusion

Abstract

Marx’s faulty predictions on the questions of the development of the class structure and consciousness formation led him to think that the transition from capitalism to socialism would occur much more rapidly than it has. The development of the new middle class and the more gradual decline in the petty bourgeois sector, particularly the rural portion, has meant that even under the best of conditions the development of labour organisation and class consciousness has proceeded at a much slower rate than the early Marxists imagined. They also underestimated the strength of religious, ethnic and linguistic ties and, like virtually all academics to date, failed to recognise the substantial differences in the economic structure of various countries. Because of variation in ethnic and linguistic diversity, the strength of religious ties and economic centralisation, Western capitalist countries vary substantially in the level of labour organisation and the strength of the socialist parties. Consequently, the political economies of various countries vary considerably. Countries where labour and the left are weak are moving toward a corporate collectivist pattern. Where labour and the left are strong, the political economies are transitional forms between capitalism and socialism.