Provide the definition of the theory "Marxism" and explain with Marxism about the statement that preference for male off-springs still prevails in South Korean Society.

 

Definition of the theory Marxism

Marxism is a social, political, and economic theory originated by Karl Marx, which focuses on the struggle between capitalists and the working class. Marx wrote that the power relationships between capitalists and workers were inherently exploitative and would inevitably create class conflict. He believed that this conflict would ultimately lead to a revolution in which the working class would overthrow the capitalist class and seize control of the economy.

Marx's class theory portrays capitalism as one step in the historical progression of economic systems that follow one another in a natural sequence driven by vast impersonal forces of history that play out through the behavior and conflict between social classes. According to Marx, every society is divided among a number of social classes, whose members have more in common with one another than with members of other social classes.

In Marx's view, economic factors and relationships between social classes are closely interrelated. The inherent inequalities and exploitative economic relations between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie would ultimately lead to a revolution in which capitalism will be abolished. While laborers are focused on basic survival, capitalist business owners are concerned with acquiring more and more money. According to Marx, this economic polarity creates social problems that would eventually be remedied through a social and economic revolution.

Explain with Marxism about the statement that preference for male off-springs still prevails in South Korean Society.

The process of fertility transition has been closely related to economic development and urbanization, which are regarded as major forces in the change in the fertility rate. But, in the case of Korea, societal transformation after 1960 has been holistic. These factors were interrelated and constituted three major dimensions of the transformation. It is often argued, too, that traditional values and systems are detrimental to fertility transition as well as economic development, but the Korean experience does not support this argument. The traditional family system—particularly the institutional preference system of children in terms of gender and birth order—is found to have played a pivotal role in some Korean families until now in the dissemination of the one- or two-child family ideal. For example, the first son is most valued and can satisfy all functional necessities of the family according to the traditional family system. This can be interpreted to support one-son or one-child family ideals if the risk of child death is minimal. Other cultural traits—such as parental obligation to support children for their worldly success, and the authoritarian involvement of the state leadership in family planning—are regarded as having been important factors in the rapid fertility reduction.

Moreover, long-suppressed problems and issues surfaced with democratization, including environmental problems, human rights issues, labor-related issues, and welfare concerns. Civil organizations and social movements flourished around the issues of the environment, women, human rights, and social welfare. For example, the Anti-pollution Movement Coalition (later the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement) was formed in 1988, the Citizen's Coalition for Economic Justice was founded in 1989, and People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy started activities in 1994. In addition, social conflicts intensified with economic development and social change. Cleavages have grown between generations in the patterns of behavior and thought, the distance between rich and poor has widened, tensions between groups of different regional backgrounds have heightened, and business-labor relations have improved little. Koreans nowadays tend to portray their society as problem-mounted and conflict-ridden.

Step-by-step explanation

Marx defined the proletariat as the social class having no significant ownership of the means of production (factories, machines, land, mines, buildings, vehicles) and whose only means of subsistence is to sell their labor power for a wage or salary.

According to Karl Marx, the bourgeois during Middle Ages usually was a self-employed businessman (such as a merchant, banker, or entrepreneur) whose economic role in society was being the financial intermediary to the feudal landlord and the peasant who worked the fief, the land of the lord. Yet, by the 18th century, the time of the Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) and of industrial capitalism, the bourgeoisie had become the economic ruling class who owned the means of production (capital and land), and who controlled the means of coercion (armed forces and legal system, police forces and prison system).