Karl Marx argued that history progresses through stages defined by class struggle. He believed that capitalism, characterized by the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, would inevitably lead to a revolution. This revolution would dismantle the capitalist structure and transition society into communism, a classless system where the means of production are collectively owned, thereby ending the cycle of class-based oppression.

Karl Marx identified the bourgeoisie as the ruling class in a capitalist society. This group owns the capital, factories, land, and other means of production, which allows them to employ wage labor and accumulate wealth through the exploitation of the proletariat, who own only their labor power.

Dialectical materialism is the philosophical framework of Marxism, which posits that the material world is in a constant state of change due to internal contradictions. It serves as the methodological basis for understanding social development, history, and the inevitable conflicts inherent in capitalist economic structures.

Karl Marx, a foundational figure in sociology, argued that the economic base of society—specifically the mode of production and the relations of production—determines the superstructure, which includes social, political, and intellectual life. Therefore, economic conditions are the primary drivers of social change and institutional organization in his historical materialist framework.

Karl Marx was deeply influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach's critique of religion. Feuerbach argued that humans create God by projecting their own idealized qualities onto a divine entity, thereby alienating themselves from their own humanity. Marx expanded this idea, arguing that religion is the 'opium of the people,' serving as a mechanism that masks the material conditions of exploitation and class struggle within a capitalist society.

Karl Marx analyzed the capitalist structure through the lens of class struggle, specifically identifying the bourgeoisie (the owners of the means of production) and the proletariat (the working class who sell their labor). These two groups are central to his theory of historical materialism and the inherent conflict within capitalist systems.

The communist regimes in the USSR and China deviated significantly from Marx's original ideas. While Marx envisioned a stateless, classless society emerging from the collapse of capitalism, these regimes implemented centralized state planning and authoritarian control. This top-down approach is often viewed as fundamentally contrary to Marx's emphasis on worker self-management and the eventual 'withering away' of the state, leading many scholars to classify these historical implementations as distinct from or opposite to his core theory.

In Karl Marx's sociological framework, the bourgeoisie refers to the ruling class who own the means of production, such as factories, land, and capital. They are contrasted with the proletariat, or the working class, who must sell their labor to survive, forming the basis of Marx's conflict theory.

In the feudal system, power was concentrated in the hands of the landed aristocracy, known as feudal lords. They controlled the land and the labor of the serfs, who were bound to the land and required to provide labor or produce in exchange for protection and the right to cultivate small plots.

Marx identified the bourgeoisie as the ruling class who own the means of production, and the proletariat as the working class who must sell their labor power to survive. He argued that the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat by extracting surplus value from their labor, which forms the basis of the economic inequality and class struggle inherent in capitalism.