Ruling class
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| + | [[Image:Pyramid of Capitalist System.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[Pyramid of Capitalist System]]'', anonymous American cartoon (1911)]] | ||
| + | [[Image:Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple.jpg|thumb|200px|This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the [[politics]] series.<br><small>Illustration:''[[Liberty Leading the People]]'' (1831, detail) by [[Eugène Delacroix]].</small>]] | ||
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| - | The term '''ruling class''' refers to the [[social class]] of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy. | ||
| - | The ruling class is a particular sector of the [[upper class]] that adheres to quite specific circumstances: it has both the most material [[wealth]] and the most widespread influence over all the other classes, and it chooses to actively exercise that power to shape the direction of a locality, a country, and/or the world. Most of the upper class does not fit the fundamentals of this description, but some do. | + | The '''ruling class''' is the [[social class]] of a given [[society]] that decides upon and sets that society's [[political agenda]]. |
| - | Most stable groups of social animals (including humans) have a visible and invisible "ruling class". The decision makers in the group may change according to the decision-type and/ or the time of observation. For example, it used to be assumed that modern societies were patriarchal and the elders dominated the real decisions, even though many [[market economies]] focus on the decisionmakers of each particular (assuredly minor) market sector, who may in fact be children or women. | + | == See also == |
| - | + | * [[Aristocracy]] | |
| - | The [[sociology | sociologist]] [[C. Wright Mills]] argued that the ruling class differs from the [[power elite]]. The latter simply refers to the small group of people with the most political power. Many of them are politicians, hired political managers, and military leaders. | + | * [[Class consciousness]] |
| - | + | * [[Elite theory]] | |
| - | In [[Marxist]] [[political economy | political economics]], the ruling class refers to that segment or [[social class|class]] of society that has the most economic and -- only in second line -- political [[power (sociology)|power]]. Under [[capitalism]], the ruling class -- the [[capitalist]]s or [[bourgeoisie]] -- consists of those who own and control the [[means of production]] and thus are able to dominate and [[exploitation | exploit]] the working class, getting them to labor enough to produce [[surplus-value]], the basis for profits, interest, and rent (property income). This property income can be used to [[capital accumulation | accumulate]] more power, to extend class domination further. The economic power of a class gives it extraordinary political power so that [[state]] or [[government]] policies almost always reflect the perceived interests of that class. | + | * [[Group decision-making]] |
| - | + | * [[Hegemony]] | |
| - | In other [[mode of production | modes of production]], there are other ruling classes: under [[feudalism]], it was the feudal lords, while under [[slavery]], it was the slave-owners. | + | * [[New class]] |
| - | + | * [[Nobility]] | |
| - | Moreover, Mattei Dogan's recent studes on elites in contemporary pluralist societies have shown that in these kinds of societies, precisely because of their complexity and their heterogeniety and particularly because of the social division of work and the multiple levels of stratification, there are not, or can not be, a coherent ruling class, even if in the past there were solid examples of ruling classes, like in the Tsarist Regime, the Ottoman Regime, and the more recent totalitarian regimes of the 20th century (communist and nazi). The concept of ruling class is incompatible with the concept of industrial society. | + | * [[Nomenklatura]] |
| - | + | * [[Overclass]] | |
| - | ==See also== | + | * [[The Man]] |
| - | *[[Upper class]] | + | * [[The Superclass List]] |
| - | *[[Social class]] | + | * [[Totalitarianism]] |
| + | * [[Upper ten thousand]] | ||
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Revision as of 20:41, 3 September 2020
Illustration:Liberty Leading the People (1831, detail) by Eugène Delacroix.
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The ruling class is the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political agenda.
See also
- Aristocracy
- Class consciousness
- Elite theory
- Group decision-making
- Hegemony
- New class
- Nobility
- Nomenklatura
- Overclass
- The Man
- The Superclass List
- Totalitarianism
- Upper ten thousand
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