Keywords
Social classes
State apparatus
Political-ideological stances of the middle classes
How to Cite
Abstract
Through a critical re-reading of Marxist class theory, a reexamination of the border line between working class and the middle classes is undertaken, focusing on the class identity of middle classes with respect to the question of structural class position
and class stance. In this context we summarise the arguments in Nicos Poulantzas’ approaches to the subject, according to which all basic sub-categories of the middle classes are affiliated to the self-same petty-bourgeoisie class, and we submit these arguments to
criticism, supporting the position that it would be more accurate to view middle-class subcollectivities not as parts of the same class but as distinct classes: The middle bourgeoisie, the traditional petty bourgeoisie and the new petty bourgeoisie. In this context we question the way Poulantzas utilizes the notion of “pertinent effects”, to interpret the class position and the ideological and political class stance of the middle classes.
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