Middle class

The middle class refers to people neither at the top nor bottom of a social hierarchy. In today's usage, the term is often applied to people who have a degree of economic independence, but not a great deal of social influence or power in their society. For example, in the United States, a small business owner who owns her own home and cleans it herself would generally be described as "middle class." This would be in contrast to a lower class person who relies upon the good graces of an employer and landlord, as well as to an upper class person who can live off investments and pay someone else to clean their house for them. Such finance-based differentiation originates in the US version of the class system. Other organisations of upper, middle, and lower classes are based on behavioural and/or historic grounds, or economic relations.

Marxism and the middle class

Marxism does not necessarily see the groups described above as the middle class. The middle class is not a fixed category within Marxism, and debate continues as to the content of this social group.

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Marxism defines social classes not according to the wealth or prestige of their members, but according to their relationship with the means of production. A noble owns land. A capitalist owns capital. A worker has the ability to work, and must seek employment in order to make a living. However, between the rulers and the ruled there is most often a group of people, often called a middle class, which lacks a specific relationship. Historically, during feudalism, the bourgeoisie were that middle class. People often describe the contemporary bourgeoisie, as the "middle class from a Marxist point of view", but this is incorrect. Marxism states that the bourgeoisie is the ruling class (or upper class) in a capitalist society.

Related Topics:
Means of production - Feudalism - Bourgeoisie

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The exact composition of the middle class under capitalism is vigourously debated by Marxists. Some describe a "coordinating class" which implements capitalism on behalf of the capitalists, composed of the petit bourgeoisie, professionals and managers. Others dispute this, freely using the term middle class to refer to affluent white collar workers as described above (even though, in Marxist terms, they are part of the proletariat—the working class). Still others, (for example Council communists) allege that there is a class comprising intellectuals, technocrats and managers which seeks power in its own right. This last group of communists allege that such technocratic middle classes seized power and government for themselves in Soviet-style societies (see coordinatorism).

Related Topics:
Petit bourgeoisie - Professional - Managers - Proletariat - Council communists - Soviet-style societies - Coordinatorism

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