The Bourgeoisie

In the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx the Bourgeoisie are described as the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. This class owns all the means of production and have a lot of power within society. They have immediate power over the workers, they have control over institutions and hold most of the economic power. In the eyes of Marx, the Bourgeoisie did not solve the issues in society, but they established new forms of struggle, “The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones” (The Communist Manifesto, 14). Marx determines the Bourgeoise as a class as they are a group of people that ignited a huge change in society. “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other – Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (The Communist Manifesto, 15). The word “great may seem insignificant in most cases, however in this quote it is probably the most important one. This word gives a slight insight into the mind of Marx as this word helps represent the magnitude of influence the Bourgeoisie (as well as the Proletariat) had on society. He views the bourgeoisie as the innovators of industrialization as they helped expand the idea into a full out change of how the industry worked. He also praises the bourgeoisie as they lead the way to modernizing society.

The political interest of the bourgeoisie was focused on political centralization. “The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered state of the population, of the means of production, and of property. It has agglomerated population, centralized the means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was political centralisation” (The Communist Manifesto, 17). The bourgeoisie had the goal to have control of society by pushing for political centralization. As stated in The Communist Manifesto Political Centralization was a process the bourgeoisie wanted to initiate, it is when independent or loosely connected provinces with different laws, interest, tax systems and governments to be put together to form one government to represent one nation. By means of having political centralization, it made owning the means of production attainable, and easier to achieve. It also promoted monopolies which the bourgeoisie pushed. This in turn would lead to the proletariats to have no other option but to work for the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisies’ control over the government would allow for the exploitation of the proletariats.

Owning the means of production was the driving force of the bourgeoisie and it was its main material interest, “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere” (The Communist Manifesto, 16). Being able to control the market and control the means of production was one of the most substantial efforts of the bourgeoisie. They pushed for the purpose of the exploitation of the market in order to have an upper hand on every other market. The bourgeoisie wanted to destroy old markets and push for the rest of the world to no longer work up indigenous raw materials but to only use raw material from remote zones. The bourgeoisie sought to create industries who are not consumed only locally but all over the world.

Marx believes that the political interest of the bourgeoisie allows for the purpose of the class to advance its material interest.  Marx believes “The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country” (The Communist Manifesto, 16). Marx continuously argues that the political interest of the bourgeoisie which is political centralization allows for the advancement in their materials interest. The material interest of the bourgeoisie is based on owning the means of production. Their political interest at first glance may not look as if it promotes owning the means of production but centralizing the government and being able to place laws, taxes, and interest on products in the market aids in the process of transitioning the power of owning the means of production. The bourgeoisie continued push for a centralized government allowed for them to develop monopolies in the market. This further allowed for a control of the means of production.