Revolutionary approach

Revolutionary approach aims at total transformation of society. There may be two reasons for this. Firstly, the revolutionaries may be dissatisfied with many things in society and, therefore, they want to change many things, not just one thing. Secondly, they may claim that since all other aspects of society are dependent on one central thing, to change any other aspect is to change the central thing. For example, those who aim at reduction in average number of children only, through information, education and communication, follow the social engineering approach; those who argue for or against a particular form of society such as capitalism, socialism or mixed economy follow the revolutionary approach.

Marx who analysed capitalism from a particular stand point of labor theory of value attributed all problems of society– exploitation, inequality, superstitions, high death rates among women and children, unemployment, low or irregular wages – to capitalist form of relations creating a hope that in the future socialist/communist society all these problems will be solved quite naturally. Later Marxist writers attached importance to both production relations and cultural factors in determining the nature of society and polity. They too, however, would not be happy with piecemeal changes in society here and there if the basic pattern of dominance and exploitation continues unabated.