Bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie is a term used in classical Marxism for the social class that controls the means of production. In opposition to the proletariat class, who earn income from the sale of their labor, the bourgeoisie class generates income through the processes of capital.
In its wider sense it means those of the middle class, originally neither aristocratic nor peasant and was the French equivalent of Burgess (English) or Burgher (German). It is essentially a non-noble mercantilist class. All were citizens or freemen of the medieval burgh or town from whence we get the modern "Borough". In its denigrating Marxist sense, the adjective "bourgeois" can mean hum-drum, unimaginative, conventional and the like.
Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter said, "without protection by some non-bourgeois group, the bourgeoisie is politically helpless and unable not only to lead its nation but even to take care of its particular class interests. Which amounts to saying that it needs a master."[1]
See also
References
- ↑ Capitalism, Specialism, and Democracy, p. 138. "it is particularly instructive by virtue of the fact that the merchants' republic invariably failed in the great game of international politics and that in practically every emergency it had to hand over the reins to a warlord of feudal complexion."
