Durkheim Vs. Marx Reflection

Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim both shared similar socio-economic ideas about socio-economic structure. Their similar ideologies can be represented in the instance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in Germany.

The primary issue during the Cold War was the desire to separate the communists in the East from the capitalists in the West as a means to prevent the synthesis of population and ideas and to keep people from leaving East Berlin. However, this social condition ended in 1989 when the border between East and West Germany was opened, marking the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism.

In Marx's view, the collapse of the Berlin Wall would be a catastrophe. Marx was a communist, meaning that he supported having an economic system that was characterized by a collective ownership of property and the restriction of rights by the state. The bringing down of the Berlin Wall is a perfect example of Marx's view that conflicts arise from the structures of collectivism by individuals occupying a similar class structure. These class struggles, in Marx's view, are the main impetus of social change and the main reason for social revolution, as well as the corner piece when a society is changing from one social order to another. In this case, it is the rejection of his ideas that have taken the form of social revolution. Marx's social theory was that a communist society creates social structure, while denying the individual freedoms to move up in class through ownership of assets as well as denying personal freedoms such as freedom of mobility, freedom of speech, and freedom of choice in such matters as education and vocation. However, this approach proves unsuccessful in reference to the collapse of the Berlin Wall because it was communism that resulted in a dysfunctional and intolerable society rather than a utopian society.

On the other hand, Emile Durkheim's social theory helped to explain why society in Eastern Europe wanted to abandon a communist economy. Durkheim's ideas were similar to Marx's, yet he believed that in order for a social order to survive, there had to be a moral consensus from the population. This idea was ultimately proven to be true because Berlin and the eastern block countries were discontent with the economic structures of communism. Thus, the economy weakened to the point of collapse. Additionally, Durkheim believed that self-interest was

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