Ruling class

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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. In Marxist terms, the ruling class would be the capitalist class, those who dominate the economy, and by extension also determine the cultural norms and practices of a given society. It has also been argued that, due to globalization, a transnational capitalist class has emerged, one which transcends national boundaries.

Analogous to the capitalist class, other modes of production give rise to different ruling classes. Under feudalism it was the feudal lords, while under slavery it was the slave-owners. In modern societies it has been argued that a coherent ruling class cannot exist, due to there being no coherent working class.

Examples[]

In Marxist philosophy, capitalism is seen to have two social classes, the bourgeoisie which is the ruling class (capitalist class) which owns the means of production as private property, and the proletariat who are exploited for their labor.^[1] Marxist revolutionary praxis seeks to achieve the social and political circumstances that render the ruling class as politically illegitimate, as such, it is requisite for the successful deposition of the capitalist system of production. Then, the ideology of the working class achieves and establishes social, political, and economic dominance, so that the proletariat (the urban working class and the peasantry) can assume power (political and economic) as the dominant class of the society.^[2] Related to this is the concept of dominant ideology, which is the ideology of the dominant class.^[2]

Likewise, anarchists seek to abolish the capitalist class and to create a classless society.^[3][4] Contrary to Marxism however, anarchists like Mikhail Bakunin believe that because the capitalist ruling class would be replaced with another (the proletariat), this defeats the point of the revolution, and therefore seek to abolish the state as a whole.^[5]

Analogous to the class of the major capitalists, other modes of production give rise to different ruling classes: under feudalism it was the feudal lords while under slavery it was the slave-owners. Under the feudal society, feudal lords had power over the vassals because of their control of the fiefs. This gave them political and military power over the people. In slavery, because complete rights of the person's life belonged to the slave owner, they could and did every implementation that would help the production on the plantation.^[6]

In his recent studies on elites in contemporary societies, Mattei Dogan has argued that because of their complexity and their heterogeneity, and particularly because of the social division of work and the multiple levels of social stratification, there is not, or can not be, a coherent ruling class. Even if in the past there were solid examples of ruling classes as in the Russian and Ottoman Empires and the more recent totalitarian regimes of the 20th century (Communist and Fascist).^{[citation needed]}

Milovan Djilas said that in a Communist regime the nomenklatura form a ruling class, which "benefited from the use, enjoyment, and disposition of material goods", thus controls all of the property and thus all of the wealth of the nation. Furthermore, he argued, the Communist bureaucracy was not an accidental mistake, but the central inherent aspect of the Communist system. A Communist regime would not be possible without the system of bureaucrats.^{[7][page needed]}

Globalization theorists argue that today a transnational capitalist class has emerged.^[8]

Sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) 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/or military leaders. The ruling class are people who directly influence politics, education and government with the use of wealth or power.^[9]

In the media[]

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There are several examples of ruling class systems in films, novels, television shows, and video games. The 2005 American independent film The American Ruling Class written by former Harper's Magazine editor Lewis Lapham and directed by John Kirby is a semi-documentary that examines how the American economy is structured and for whom. The 2017 Philippine political crime-suspense epic Wildflower is about a rich influential and corrupt political family, the Ardientes, ruling over a town where a wave of murders and crimes which they have committed washed over.

Society, in the novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is eusocial with a genetically engineered caste system. The alpha++ class is the ruling class having been bred as scientists and administrators and control the World State in the novel. This situation can also be found in the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four where the inner party as symbolized by the fictitious Big Brother literally controls what everyone in the outer party hears, sees and learns, albeit without genetic engineering and on the model of Stalinist communism having taken over the Anglosphere (Oceania). In Oceania, the ignorant masses ("proles") are relatively free as they pose no threat to oligarchical collectivism ("Big Brother").

Examples in films include Gattaca, where the genetically-born were superior and the ruling class; and V for Vendetta, which depicted a powerful totalitarian government in Britain. The comedic film The Ruling Class was a satire of British aristocracy, depicting nobility as self-serving and cruel, juxtaposed against an insane relative who believes that he is Jesus Christ, whom they identify as a "bloody Bolshevik".

See also[]

References[]

Further reading[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Ruling class

• Domhoff, G. William (April 2005). "The Class-Domination Theory of Power". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Dogan, Mattei (ed.), Elite Configuration at the Apex of Power, Brill, Leiden, 2003.