Class Conflict and the Radical View of the Common Good

Abstract

In the radical perspective, the most important quality of society is a deep class cleavage between an elite or wealthy class and the much larger class of working people (Marx et al., 1998; Lasswell, 1958). The radical perspective argues that we should be profoundly cynical about institutions that claim to provide human services such as police, schools, health care, charities and philanthropies, religious institutions, and public welfare. In general, these further the interests of the elite more than those of the needy they claim to serve. Whether or not we accept the radical theory of society, this cynicism is important for making sense of human services because so often they do in fact work against the interests of their clients. Indeed, most of the body of social science research on services is devoted to demonstrating this unpleasant truism. Whether or not Marx was right about the inevitable collapse of capitalism and the final emergence of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Marxist analysis of human service institutions is powerful because it is descriptively accurate. Often these institutions seem more effective at using their authority to prevent sensible interventions than at solving problems.