Fundamental International Relation Theory Issues Essay

Fundamental International Relation Theory Issues - Essay Example Class, in these terms, is the way economic power is distributed when economic activity is organized in an instrumentally-rational manner to the greatest degree. The problem of exploitation the extraction of labor effort from workers are treated, in this framework, primarily as a problem of technical efficiency and economic rationality in creating work incentives and effective discipline. This leads to a relatively impoverished conception of the nature of antagonistic interests generated by class relations. Key readings from Marx ("The Communist Manifesto" and "On Classes") help us understand the sociological analyses of inequality in the concepts of social class, exploitation, surplus value, markets, status, and power. (Dell, 227-9) The importance of production relations in Marxian theory with beliefs that the economic exchange is a positive-sum game and its emphasis on market relations could be a key prospect in understanding the basic or fundamental influence on modern European society. It could well be suggested that both property and market dynamics are important by relating each to the concepts of class composition. The basic concept may be incorporated into positive-sum game's emphasis on social closure to more clearly differentiate social classes which could develop into a model of the class structure, usefully differentiates relational and gradational conceptualizations of social class, and re-visits some key differences between Marxian and positive-sum game theory. But the end goal being the evaluation of Marxian and positive-sum game theory in the perspective of the modern society it could be well punctuated that the basic relevance of these perceptions are present even today but not necessarily in a visible manner. The insights of Marx and positive-sum game remain integral to sociological analyses of inequality even as more recent scholarship has promoted more contextual, and some would say more nuanced, models. (Fletcher, 63)Â