When looking at Feudalism and the current form of government we have today, we can see that feudalistic ideas play a key factor in our government’s guidelines. WE can take the social rankings during the medieval time period and the social rankings of today and show how similar they are. We can also take the highest level of both social rankings and show how they have the same ideas, and standards. Feudalistic governments had social classes that consisted of nobility, fiefs, serfs and the peasantry. Nobility compares to our national government.
These two classes are the highest, most powerful and most responsible class for everyone underneath them. The national government is like nobility in the way that they give rules to the classes below them and can over through what the lower classes say or do. The next class would be fiefs which are comparable to that of the regional and state governments. The regional and state governments are like fiefs because they have power over smaller groups of people but they still must report to the head of society. The next group is the serfs who are comparable to the upper and middle classes.
Serfs and upper and middle classes do not have many things in abundance to them as in tons of money to spend but they make enough to live on and have some fun with what is left. The lowest classes during the medieval time were the peasantry. The peasantry is equal to what our society calls the poor. This class relates to those who make less than what is needed to get by in life. These classes are similar in many ways. The national government is in control of the entire country and is responsible for their protection and social programs.
The Essay on Socioeconomic Class Marx Social Change
Brief Analysis Of Karl Marx's Views On The Relationship Between Social Change, Socioeconomic Class Structure And Ideology As James Farganis (1993) notes, Karl Marx "continues to be of interest... ." (p. 27) to many sociologists. According to Alan Swingewood (1991), "During the course of the 1840's and 1850's, Marxism emerged as the first sociological theory which identified scientific analysis ...
The national government breaks responsibility over the different territories or states out so that there are fewer groups of people to deal with. The state and regional governments then take charge over their specific territory and govern it. The national government in some cases will get involved if they believe it is truly necessary. The upper and middle classes are the true workers of the social classes. They go to work every day and have taxes taken from their checks that go from the local governments pockets into the national government. The last class is the poor or underprivileged.
This class gets extra helping financially and medically to try and make surviving in the economy easier. The serfs and peasantry would not survive if not for the protection of the nobility. Today’s government protects the nation’s people with military, police and firemen. The government uses the military to protect its civilians from outside threats. It uses police and firemen to protect civilians from the threat we can put on one another. The government’s protection is very important to the running of our country but would not be possible if the poor, middle and upper classes did not pay taxes to the state and national government.
These taxes are what pay our soldiers, policemen, and firemen who put their lives on the line for the country. The current government’s structure is very similar to that of what feudalistic governments had in the medieval time period. Feudalism can be broadly interpreted as a basis or building blocks for what the current government is trying to accomplish every day, which is protection. The protection of people is the biggest responsibility the government has and for it to be successful the social classes below it must put their part in as well whether it be paying taxes, voting or just working every day.