Bourgeoisie vs Proletariat

They were the socio-economic class between the peasants and the landlords, between the workers and the owners of the means of production, the feudal nobility. Consequently, their primary objective is the constant reinvestment and preservation of this capital to maintain their economic and political dominance, a position that is sharply contrasted by the working class they exploit. The main activity of the bourgeoisie within this framework is the accumulation of capital through the ownership and control of the means of production such as factories, land, and technology. The bourgeoisie in its original sense is intimately linked to the political ideology of liberalism and its existence within cities, recognised as such by their urban charters (e.g., municipal charters, town privileges, German town law), so there was no bourgeoisie apart from the citizenry of the cities. They are traditionally contrasted with the proletariat by their wealth, political power, and education, as well as their access to and control of cultural, social, and financial capital. As societies shifted from farming to factory production, new classes emerged that reflected the realities of capitalism.

This will mean that society will become communist. The workers will eventually revolt due to increasingly worse working conditions and low wages. The proletariat has expanded far beyond traditional industrial workers. Being confined to a component means that workers lose value and are potentially less skilled when seeking other employment (Chiapello, 2013). Because he does not own the means of production, he does not have all of the factors of production. The proletariat do not receive the value of their goods that their labour produces, but only the cost of subsistence.

But the workers are no longer to be misled by thebourgeoisie, especially since the insurrection of 1842. And as to the efficiency of this philanthropy,Canon Parkinson himself says that the poor are relieved much more by the poorthan by the bourgeoisie; and such relief given by an honest proletarian whoknows himself what it is to be hungry, for whom sharing his scanty meal isreally a sacrifice, but a sacrifice borne with pleasure, such help has a whollydifferent ring to it from the carelessly-tossed alms of the luxuriousbourgeois. And if the operative will not be forced into thisabstraction, if he insists that he is not Labour, but a man, who possesses,among other things, the attribute of labour-power, if he takes it into his headthat he need not allow himself to be sold and bought in the market, as thecommodity “Labour”, the bourgeois reason comes to a standstill. I have never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased byselfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the Englishbourgeoisie; and I mean by this, especially the bourgeoisie proper,particularly the Liberal, Corn Law repealing bourgeoisie.

• In the 19th century, the bourgeoisie propounded liberalism, and gained political rights, religious rights, and civil liberties for themselves and the lower social classes; thus the bourgeoisie was a progressive philosophic and political force in Western societies.
• According to the Marxist view of history, during the 17th and 18th centuries, the bourgeoisie were the politically progressive social class who supported the principles of constitutional government and of natural right, against the Law of Privilege and the claims of rule by divine right that the nobles and prelates had autonomously exercised during the feudal order.
• With their social values—sobriety, discretion, and economy—went a tendency to imitate the style of their social superiors.

The bourgeoisie

Lacking ownership of the means of production, the proletariat is rendered powerless. They are able to shape society’s institutions including the state, the law, and the criminal justice system- to serve their own interests. Economic power translates into political and ideological power. This economic split cascades into wider differences in status, opportunities, and life experiences, underpinning inequality across education, politics, and the justice system. To survive, they must sell their labour power for wages.

Any assumption of legitimate political power (government and rule) by the bourgeoisie represented a fascist loss of totalitarian state power for social control through political unity—one people, one nation, and one leader. In the 19th century, the bourgeoisie propounded liberalism, and gained political rights, religious rights, and civil liberties for themselves and the lower social classes; thus the bourgeoisie was a progressive philosophic and political force in Western societies. According to the Marxist view of history, during the 17th and 18th centuries, the bourgeoisie were the politically progressive social class who supported the principles of constitutional government and of natural right, against the Law of Privilege and the claims of rule by divine right that the nobles and prelates had autonomously exercised during the feudal order. Following this revolution, as the exploitation of labour is abolished and a classless society is established, the bourgeoisie would cease to exist. In Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat form an antagonistic relationship based on the former’s exploitation of the latter’s labour within the system known as capitalism. Marx argued that a social revolution would mean changing the existing social and political system from a capitalist to a communist society.

Proletarians literally have nothing to sell but their labor power. Because these workers have no property, they must find employment in order to survive and obtain an income. These individuals employed labor to create capital (Wolf & Resnick, 2013). They are the owners 1win app of capital and are able to acquire the means of creating goods and services, such as natural resources, or machinery.

The bourgeoisie

Marx believed that the bourgeoisie began in medieval Europe with traders, merchants, craftspeople, industrialists, manufacturers, and so on who could increase wealth through industry. The ruling class shapes the law to protect its own interests, ensuring that laws regulating business are weak and that loopholes exist to avoid taxes. The criminal justice system operates unequally, systematically favouring the bourgeoisie while criminalising the proletariat. It achieves this through a hidden curriculum that teaches working-class pupils to passively accept hierarchy, conformity, and their future roles as unskilled or semi-skilled workers.

Private education, in particular, prepares the children of the capitalist elite for these roles. It is not a neutral institution but one that functions to the benefit of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the proletariat This leads to alienation, where workers feel divorced from their society, their work, and their sense of self. Their relationship with the bourgeoisie is one of domination and exploitation, where they are compelled to work under conditions dictated by the owners.