• What is Bourgeoisie?
• The bourgeoisie according to Marxism
• How did the bourgeoisie emerge?
• What are the bourgeois values?
• Types of bourgeoisie

We explain what the bourgeoisie is and how this social class arises. What are the bourgeois values, and types of bourgeoisie.

During the 19th century and after the Industrial Revolution, the bourgeoisie consolidated its power.

What is Bourgeoisie?

By bourgeoisie is understood, broadly speaking, the wealthy middle class and owner of shops and means of productionsuch as factories and industries, differentiated in the traditional Marxist vision of the proletariat, that is, of the working class.

The terms bourgeois and bourgeoisie come from the French (bourgeoisie) medieval, since they emerged as the name of a new social class urban born within the feudalism medieval (the inhabitants of the Burgos, that is, the new parts of the town medieval). These were neither feudal lords (nobles), nor serfs of the peasantry, but were initially merchants, artisans and free professionals, whose economic position allowed them to inhabit an intermediate rung in the society.

The emergence and growth of the bourgeoisie marks the passage in the West between the feudal era and the modern era, as its economic power eventually came into conflict with the political power of the society of the Old Regime (Absolutism) and thus the first Revolutions against the monarchy took place.

The bourgeoisie according to Marxism

According to Marxist thought and the doctrine of historical materialism, the bourgeoisie occupies a dominant place in the structure production of capitalism, since they are the owners of the means of production (factories, workshops, etc.) and obtain their wealth from the “exploitation of man by man”, That is, take advantage of the work force of the proletariat to manufacture objects or provide services from the sale of which it obtains the largest possible slice, paying the workers barely a salary monthly.

Given the influence of Marxism in the thought forms of the twentieth century and later, the terms "bourgeois" and "bourgeoisies" acquired in certain contexts a pejorative meaning, becoming synonymous with exploiter, parasite, etc.

How did the bourgeoisie emerge?

During the 19th century the bourgeoisie became the ruling class.

The bourgeoisie was gaining importance thanks to the accumulation of capitals and property, which often meant that many bourgeois families became ennobled and even acceded to some local political power, especially in the city-states of the time such as Venice or Florence. The key to this was that they were not subject to feudal jurisprudence, but constituted a relatively new social class.

The mercantilism and the expansion of the European empires that came with the modern era meant the enrichment of the bourgeoisie and the definitive fall of the feudal model, whose values ​​no longer meant much. The new bourgeois and republican values ​​ended up overthrowing the absolutist model of the Condition, which reserved all political power to the nobility, in what was called the bourgeois revolutions.

Finally, during the 19th century and the Industrial Revolution, the bourgeoisie consolidated its power over the new capitalist world, thus becoming the dominant social class and therefore the most conservative. The impoverished nobility often needed financial support from the bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie aspired to its traditional status, so they ended up rallying in opposition to the proletariat.

What are the bourgeois values?

The rise of the bourgeoisie introduced new cultural values ​​to the West, on which the New Regime of which the bourgeoisie would be the ruling class was built. These values ​​are those of the French illustration, the liberalism and encyclopedism, and include the following:

• Civil or public liberties. This includes freedom of religion, of the press, of expression, of assembly and above all economic freedom, a key concept for the free market defended by liberals, devoid of state or union restrictions, and the predominance of the private property above all.
• The rule of law. The division and separation of public powers, organized on the basis of equality before the law of all men and in political liberalism, with a parliamentary system supported by a national Constitution.
• Equality, Liberty, fraternity. The three great values ​​of the Republic, promulgated by the French Revolution from 1789.
• Social Mobility. The possibility of the promotion or descent of any individual within the socioeconomic scale based on their economic, intellectual or work successes, and not on their blood, lineage or belonging to a social stratum.

Types of bourgeoisie

Broadly speaking, we can talk about the following categories:

• Gentry. The so-called "high society", that is to say, the wealthiest and most exclusive sectors of the bourgeoisie, which in many ways are managed as a new aristocracy.
• Petty bourgeoisie. Luck of the lower bourgeoisie, intermediate between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
• Enlightened bourgeoisie. Originally an 18th century bourgeois class that cultivated the values ​​of the culture, the Arts and the education, the term can also be used to refer to the university or artistic middle class.
• Agrarian bourgeoisie. Despite the contradictory nature of both terms, this name is used to designate landowners and large agricultural products.