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Class refers to a group of people who share same status with reference to their economic position
in society. Karl Marx defined class as a group of people who have same relationship with
respect to means of production. Max Weber defined class as a group of people who share same
position in market economy , and by virtue of this position, they receive similar rewards.
Karl Marx:
In Marxist theory, the capitalist stage of production consists of two main classes: the bourgeoisie,
the capitalists who own the means of production, and the much larger proletariat (or
For Marx, the analysis of social class, class structures and changes in those structures are key to
understanding capitalism and other social systems or modes of production. In the Communist
Manifesto Marx and Engels comment that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles.
of the nature of capitalism. For Marx, classes are defined and structured by the relations
concerning (i) work and labour and (ii) ownership or possession of property and the means of
production. These economic factors more fully govern social relationships in capitalism than
they did in earlier societies. While earlier societies contained various strata or groupings which
might be considered classes, these may have been strata or elites that were not based solely on
Marx did not complete the manuscript that would have presented his overall view of social class.
Many of his writings concern the class structures of capitalism, the relationship among classes
the dynamics of class struggle, political power and classes, and the development of a classless
society, and from these a Marxian approach to class can be developed. Note that Hadden does
not discuss class in any detail, although the class structure of capitalism is implicit in the labour
1. Classes in Capitalism
The main classes in capitalism are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. However, other classes
such as landlords, petty bourgeoisie, peasants, and lumpenproletariat also exist, but are not
exploiting labour power, using the surplus value from employment of this labour power to
accumulate or expand their capital. It is the ownership of capital and its use to exploit labour and
expand capital are key here. Being wealthy is, in itself, not sufficient to make one a capitalist
(e.g. managers in the state sector or landlords). What is necessary is the active role of using this
Historically, the bourgeoisie began cities of medieval Europe, with the development of traders,
merchants, crafts persons, industrialists, manufacturers and others whose economic survival and
ability to increase wealth came from trade, commerce, or industry. In order for each of these to
expand their operations, they needed greater freedom to market products and expand economic
activities. In the struggle against the feudal authorities (church and secular political authorities)
this class formed and took on a progressive role. That is, they helped undermine the old
hierarchical and feudal order and create historical progress. For a segment of this class, wealth
came by employing labour (industrial capital), for others it came through trade (merchant capital),
banking and finance (finance capital), or using land in a capitalist manner (landed
capital). It was the industrial capitalists who employed labour to create capital that became the
leading sector of the bourgeoisie, whose economic activities ultimately changed society. In
Britain, this class became dominant politically and ideologically by the mid-nineteenth century.
By employing workers, industrial capital created the surplus value that could take on the various
b. Proletariat. The proletariat are owners of labour power (the ability to work), and mere owners
of labour power, with no other resources than the ability to work with their hands, bodies, and
minds. Since these workers have no property, in order to survive and obtain an income for
themselves and their families, they must find employment work for an employer. This means
This exploitative work relationship recreates or reproduces itself continually. If the capitalist-
employer is to make profits and accumulate capital, wages must be kept low. This means that the
proletariat is exploited, with the surplus time (above that required for creating subsistence)
worked by the worker creating surplus products. While the worker produces, the products
created by this labour are taken by the capitalist and sold – thus producing surplus value or profit
for the capitalist but poverty for workers. This occurs each day of labour process, preventing
workers from gaining ownership of property and recreating the conditions for further
exploitation.
The antagonistic and contradictory nature of this system is evident as capitalists attempting to
reduce wages and make workers work more intensively, while workers have exactly the opposite
set of interests. Work and the labour process in the capitalist mode of production are organized
so that workers remain property less members of the proletariat. The surplus products and value
Historically, the proletariat emerged as the aristocracy began to suffer financial difficulties in the
later middle ages. Many of those who were supported by working for the aristocracy lost their
livelihood – the "disbanding of the feudal retainers and the dissolution of the monasteries."
Using enclosures, changing the conditions of production in agriculture, and denying peasants
access to common lands and resources, landowners transformed land into pasture land for raising
sheep, or sold land to farmers who began to develop grain and livestock production. People who
had subsisted on the land were denied the possibility of making a living on the land, and they
become property less. Population growth was also considerable, and in some areas forced labour
(Slavery, indentured servants, poor, prison) was used. While some people subsisted in rural
industry and craft production, factory production began to undermine these as well in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Together these changes created a large class of landless and
propertyless people who had no choice but to become members of the proletariat – many
working in factories. These people became free wage labourers, free from feudal ties and free
from a source of livelihood. Today we still talk of free labour markets and the dual meaning is
While the relationship between workers and capitalists, or between labour and capital may
appear to be no more than an economic relationship of equals meeting equals in the labour
market, Marx shows how it is an exploitative social relationship. Not only is it exploitative, it is
contradictory, with the interests of the two partners in the relationship being directly opposed to
each other. Although at the same time, the two opposed interests are also partners in the sense
that both capital and labour are required in production and an exploitative relationship means an
The contradictory relationship has class conflict built into it, and leads to periodic bursts of
strikes, crises, political struggles, and ultimately to the overthrow of bourgeois rule by the
proletariat. Class conflict of this sort results in historical change and is the motive force in the
history of capitalism.
c. Landlords. In addition to the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, Marx discussed a number of
other classes. First, Marx mentions landowners or landlords as a class in Britain. While these
were historically important, and many still retain their wealth even today (e.g. the Royal Family),
they were considered by Marx to be a marginal class, once powerful and dominant but having
lost their central role in production and the organization of society. In order to retain their wealth,
some of these landowners were able to transform their wealth in land into landed capital. While
this constituted a somewhat different form than industrial capital, this meant that the land was
also used as capital, to accumulate. Labour may not be directly employed by landowners, but the
d. Petty Bourgeoisie and Middle Class. The lower middle class or the petty (petite) bourgeoisie
(the bourgeoisie was sometimes called the middle class in this era), constitutes "the small
characteristic of this class is that it does own some property, but not sufficient to have all work
done by employees or workers. Members of this class must also work in order to survive, so they
have a dual existence – as (small scale) property owners and as workers. Because of this dual
role, members of this class have divided interests, usually wishing to preserve private property
and property rights, but with interests often opposed to those of the capitalist class. This class is
split internally as well, being geographically, industrially, and politically dispersed, so that it is
difficult for it to act as a class. Marx expected that this class would disappear as capitalism
developed, with members moving into the bourgeoisie or into the working class, depending on
whether or not they were successful. Many in this class have done this, but at the same time, this
return to an older order. This class has been considered by some Marxists to have been the base
of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s. At other times, when it is acting in opposition to the interests
of large capital, it may have a more radical or reformist bent to it (anti-monopoly).