In sociology, theruling class of a society is thesocial class who set and decide the political and economic agenda ofsociety.
In Marxist philosophy, the ruling class are the class who own themeans of production in a given society and apply theircultural hegemony to determine and establish thedominant ideology (ideas,culture,mores,norms,traditions) of the society. In the case of thecapitalistmode of production, that class is the capitalist class, also known as thebourgeoisie.
According to some theorists in the 21st century, the worldwide political economy established byglobalization has created atransnational capitalist class who are not native to any one country.[1]
In previousmodes of production, such asfeudalism (inheritable property and rights), the feudal lords of the manor were the ruling class; in an economy based uponchattel slavery, the slave owners were the ruling class. The political economy of thefeudal system gave socio-economic and legal power to the feudal lord over the life, labour, and property of thevassal, including military service. The political economy of a slave state gave the slaver socio-economic and legal power over the person, labour, and property of a slave.[2]
InMarxist philosophy, thecapitalist society has two dominant social classes: (i) the ruling-classbourgeoisie (capitalist class) who own the means of production asprivate property; and (ii) the working-classproletariat whom the bourgeoisie subject to theexploitation of labour,[3] which form ofpolitical economy is justified by thedominant ideology of the ruling class.[4] To replace thecapitalist mode of production in a society, Marxism seeks to void thepolitical legitimacy of the bourgeoisie as the ruling class and overthrow it and its state apparatus, replacing it with a state controlled by the working class, a worker's state, which abolishes private property and takes the means of production under its control. In Marxist theory, such a society, in which the proletariat has become the ruling class by seizing power and replacing the capitalist state institutions with institutions that serve the proletariat, is called adictatorship of the proletariat.[4][5] The ultimate goal of this worker's state is the abolition of classes and thus of class rule itself.
In the political economies of the formerMarxist-Leninist states, thenomenklatura replaced the capitalist ruling class and control the means of production, allocate resources, etc for the society, per the directions of the party. They were the administrators of thebureaucracy that executed the socio-economic functions of the state.[6]
The sociologistC. Wright Mills identified and distinguished between the ruling class and thepower elite who make the decisions for modern capitalist societies.[7]
Likewise, to establish a society without social classes,anarchism seeks to abolish the ruling class.[8][9] Unlike the Marxist perspective, anarchists, such asMikhail Bakunin, seek to abolish thestate, because, anarchists believe despite revolutionary change, the (capitalist) ruling class would be replaced by another ruling class (party leaders), which is a political cycle that voids the social-change purpose of arevolution.[10]
Questioning the existence of a functional ruling class in 21st-century societies,Mattei Dogan proposes that the political and socio-economicelites do not form a cohesive ruling class within their societies because of thesocial stratification and the narrow specialisation of labour consequent to the globalization of the world economy.[citation needed] In contrast, for the 20th century, he identifies the combination of military defeat, political implosion and the presence of a charismatic leader as the drivers for the downfall of ruling classes in theRussian Empire, theOttoman Empire, and later for the creation ofVichy France.[11]
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