He saw how the industrial revolution polarized society into two main classes: the bourgeoisie (middle/upper class) and proletariat (poor/labor class). This type of capitalist society turned everything into a commodity, which only served to alienate people from their work and each other. According to authors Theda Skocpol and Ellen Kay Trimberger, Marx believed,.
" a revolutionary situation occurs when an existing mode of production reaches the limits of its contradictions. The decisive contradictions are economic contradictions that develop between the social forces and the social relations of production. In turn, intensifying class conflict is generated between the existing dominant class and the rising, revolutionary class. Thus, Marx theorized that revolutionary contradictions are internally generated within a society." (Goldstone, 64).
Marx believed that social change came through three main ideas: competition, class struggle, and transitions of modes of production. First, the idea of competition is based within classes. For example, an oil company executive wants higher prices for oil so that she/he makes more profit, but the industry that uses oil wants the prices to stay low so they make more profit. Thus, through conflicting points of view a change is achieved, some being more "revolutionary" than others. The next idea is class struggle. Marx believed that the dominant class, whether it is lords or kings in the feudal system or the bourgeoisie in the capitalist system, oppress the lower class, the serfs or proletariat. Marx believed by the growth of class-consciousness that the lower classes could become more aware of their situation and thus throw of the shackles of oppression. Finally, social change can happen because of transitions of modes of production. The industrial revolution is a prime example of this. By changing the way things were made changed the whole shape of society.
