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Petty bourgeoisie

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The petite bourgeoisie or petty bourgeoisie are the class between the proletariat and the capitalist class. They are the class of smaller scale merchants and semi-autonomous peasants. In contrast with the high bourgeoisie or "big" bourgeoisie, most petite bourgeoisie's means of subsistence are not entirely derived from the exploitation of the labour of others. In Western imperialist countries, the upper sectors of the petite-bourgeoisie are called "small business owners" whereas the lower ones are called "freelancers," such as the self-employed, artists or tutors who are both employer and employee under the Capitalist mode of production.

Most businesses are owned and operated by the petty bourgeois. Big bourgeoisie wield enough economic power that they can turn that economic power into political power at the highest levels, the national level, whereas petty bourgeois can only do so at a provincial or local level. In the United States, car dealer owners are collectively, one of the most organized sub-groups.[1]

Class role[edit | edit source]

The petite bourgeoisie can be either a progressive force (such as in New Democracy) or a reactionary force, depending on the material conditions of the place or time.[2][3] Many petite bourgeois are opposed to the current form of capitalism, but any revolution led by them is bound to be deeply unstable.[4]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. Alexander Sammon (2023-05-30). Want to Stare Into the Republican Soul in 2023?.
  2. S. N. Nadel (1974). Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.), vol. 16: 'Petit bourgeoisie' (Russian: Boljšaja sovjetskaja enciklopjedija). [PDF] Moscow.
  3. “The leaders of the petty bourgeoisie—the intellectuals, the prosperous peasants, the present parties of the Narodniks (the S.R.s included) and the Mensheviks—are not at present in favour of a revolution against the capitalists and some of them are even opposed to it, greatly to the detriment of the people’s cause. The coalition cabinet is the kind of “experiment” that is going to help the people as a whole to quickly discard the illusion of petty-bourgeois conciliation with the capitalists.

    The conclusion is obvious: only assumption of power by the proletariat, backed by the semi-proletarians, can give the country a really strong and really revolutionary government. It will be really strong because it will be supported by a solid and class-conscious majority of the people. It will be strong because it will not, of necessity, have to be based on a precarious “agreement” between capitalists and small proprietors, between millionaires and petty bourgeoisie, between the Konovalovs-Shingaryovs and the Chernovs-Tseretelis.”

    Vladimir Lenin (1917). A Strong Revolutionary Government. [MIA]
  4. “A petty bourgeois driven to frenzy by the horrors of capitalism is a social phenomenon which, like anarchism, is characteristic of all capitalist countries. The instability of such revolutionism, its barrenness, and its tendency to turn rapidly into submission, apathy, phantasms, and even a frenzied infatuation with one bourgeois fad or another—all this is common knowledge.”

    Vladimir Lenin (1920). "Left-wing" communism, an infantile disorder. [MIA]