Question for those who have read more theory than me: Is the petite bourgeoisie closer to the grande bourgeoisie or closer to the proletariat? It’s probably the former, but I would rather ask than just assume.
Depends on how you measure class “distance”. By income? Closer to the proles. By relation to means of production? The haute bourgeoise. By “ideology”? Well, the ruling ideology of any society is always the ideology of the ruling class, so the proles, petite bourgeoise and hautes all believe in liberalism anyway.
Depends a lot on historical context. If the petit bourgeoisie perceives that they’re being squeezed between the advance of large finance capitalists and the labor movements (see: Weimar Republic) they will always turn to fascism. If the petit bourgeoisie is being proletarianized they often gain class consciousness and join the workers (see: the national liberation movements of the 20th century).
For Canada and any other imperial core countries it’s always the first case, since despite the fact that large segments of the petit bourgeoisie have been proletarianized due to neoliberalism, they still will prefer to maintain the world system of imperialism.
They identify and have some economic elements that make them seem closer to the capitalists but tend stagnate where they are or outright fall back into the ranks of the proletariat.
Question for those who have read more theory than me: Is the petite bourgeoisie closer to the grande bourgeoisie or closer to the proletariat? It’s probably the former, but I would rather ask than just assume.
Depends on how you measure class “distance”. By income? Closer to the proles. By relation to means of production? The haute bourgeoise. By “ideology”? Well, the ruling ideology of any society is always the ideology of the ruling class, so the proles, petite bourgeoise and hautes all believe in liberalism anyway.
Depends a lot on historical context. If the petit bourgeoisie perceives that they’re being squeezed between the advance of large finance capitalists and the labor movements (see: Weimar Republic) they will always turn to fascism. If the petit bourgeoisie is being proletarianized they often gain class consciousness and join the workers (see: the national liberation movements of the 20th century).
For Canada and any other imperial core countries it’s always the first case, since despite the fact that large segments of the petit bourgeoisie have been proletarianized due to neoliberalism, they still will prefer to maintain the world system of imperialism.
And in a place like the USSR under the NEP, they become little factories of reaction churning out the belief in liberalism
In a very vulgarized and simple answer…
They identify and have some economic elements that make them seem closer to the capitalists but tend stagnate where they are or outright fall back into the ranks of the proletariat.