# Ruling class > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ruling_class > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ruling_class.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruling_class > Source revision: 1354467400 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Social class that sets the rules of a society For other uses, see [The Ruling Class (disambiguation)](/source/The_Ruling_Class_(disambiguation)). Part of a series on Sociology History Outline Index Key themes Society Globalization Human behavior Human environmental impact Identity Industrial revolutions 3 / 4 / 5 Popularity Social complexity Social environment Social equality Social equity Social group Peer Social power Social stratification Social structure Social cycle theory Perspectives Conflict theory Critical theory Structural functionalism Positivism Postpositivism Social constructionism Social Darwinism Symbolic interactionism Branches Aging Architecture Art Astrosociology Body Criminology Consciousness Culture Death Demography Deviance Disaster Economic Education Emotion (Jealousy) Environmental Family Feminist Fiscal Food Gender Generations Health Historical Immigration Industrial Internet Jewry Knowledge Language Law Leisure Literature Marxist Mathematic Medical Military Music Peace, war, and social conflict Philosophy Political Public Punishment Race and ethnicity Religion Rural Science (History of science) Social movements Social psychology Sociocybernetics Sociology Space Sport Technology Terrorism Urban Utopian Victimology Visual Methods Quantitative Qualitative Comparative Computational Ethnographic Conversation analysis Historical Interview Mathematical Network analysis Social experiment Survey Major theorists 1700s: Bonald · Comte · Sieyès 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias 1900s: Fromm · Parsons · Adorno · Gehlen · Aron · Merton · Nisbet · Mills · Bell · Schoeck · Goffman · Bauman · Foucault · Luhmann · Habermas · Baudrillard · Bourdieu · Giddens Lists Bibliography Terminology Journals Organizations People Timeline By country Society portal v t e In [sociology](/source/Sociology), the **ruling class** of a society is the [social class](/source/Social_class) who set and decide the [political](/source/Politics), [economic](/source/Economy) and [cultural](/source/Culture) agenda of [society](/source/Society). In Marxist philosophy, the ruling class are the class who own the [means of production](/source/Means_of_production) in a given society and apply their [cultural hegemony](/source/Cultural_hegemony) to determine and establish the [dominant ideology](/source/Dominant_ideology) ([ideas](/source/Ideas), [culture](/source/Culture), [mores](/source/Mores), [norms](/source/Norms_(sociology)), [traditions](/source/Tradition)) of the society. In the case of the [capitalist](/source/Capitalist_mode_of_production_(Marxist_theory)) [mode of production](/source/Mode_of_production), that class is the capitalist class, also known as the [bourgeoisie](/source/Bourgeoisie). According to some theorists in the 21st century, the worldwide political economy established by [globalization](/source/Globalization) has created a [transnational capitalist class](/source/Transnational_capitalist_class) who are not native to any one country.[1] ## Background In previous [modes of production](/source/Mode_of_production), such as [feudalism](/source/Feudalism) (inheritable property and rights), the feudal lords of the manor were the ruling class; in an economy based upon [chattel slavery](/source/Slavery), the slave owners were the ruling class. The political economy of the [feudal system](/source/Feudalism) gave socio-economic and legal power to the feudal lord over the life, labour, and property of the [vassal](/source/Vassal), 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] In [Marxist philosophy](/source/Marxist_philosophy), the [capitalist](/source/Capitalism) society has two dominant social classes: (i) the ruling-class [bourgeoisie](/source/Bourgeoisie) (capitalist class) who own the means of production as [private property](/source/Private_property); and (ii) the working-class [proletariat](/source/Proletariat) whom the bourgeoisie subject to the [exploitation of labour](/source/Exploitation_of_labour),[3] which form of [political economy](/source/Political_economy) is justified by the [dominant ideology](/source/Dominant_ideology) of the ruling class.[4] To replace the [capitalist mode of production](/source/Capitalist_mode_of_production_(Marxist_theory)) in a society, Marxism seeks to void the [political legitimacy](/source/Political_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 a [dictatorship of the proletariat](/source/Dictatorship_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 former [Marxist-Leninist states](/source/Marxist-Leninist_state), the [nomenklatura](/source/Nomenklatura) 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 the [bureaucracy](/source/Bureaucracy) that executed the socio-economic functions of the state.[6] The sociologist [C. Wright Mills](/source/C._Wright_Mills) identified and distinguished between the ruling class and the [power elite](/source/Power_elite) who make the decisions for modern capitalist societies.[7] Likewise, to establish a society without social classes, [anarchism](/source/Anarchism) seeks to abolish the ruling class.[8][9] Unlike the Marxist perspective, anarchists, such as [Mikhail Bakunin](/source/Mikhail_Bakunin), seek to abolish the [state](/source/State_(polity)), 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 a [revolution](/source/Revolution).[10] Questioning the existence of a functional ruling class in 21st-century societies, [Mattei Dogan](/source/Mattei_Dogan) proposes that the political and socio-economic [elites](/source/Elite) do not form a cohesive ruling class within their societies because of the [social stratification](/source/Social_stratification) and the narrow specialisation of labour consequent to the globalization of the world economy.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: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 the [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire), the [Ottoman Empire](/source/Ottoman_Empire), and later for the creation of [Vichy France](/source/Vichy_France).[11] ## See also - [Aristocracy](/source/Aristocracy) - [Class consciousness](/source/Class_consciousness) - [Elite theory](/source/Elite_theory) - [Group decision-making](/source/Group_decision-making) - [Hegemony](/source/Hegemony) - [Liberal elite](/source/Liberal_elite) - [New class](/source/New_class) - [Nobility](/source/Nobility) - [Nomenklatura](/source/Nomenklatura) - [Overclass](/source/Overclass) - [The Man](/source/The_Man) - [The Superclass List](/source/The_Superclass_List) - [Totalitarianism](/source/Totalitarianism) - [Upper ten thousand](/source/Upper_ten_thousand) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Transnational Capitalist Class](http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~jhsprague/Sprague_Jeb_2009_Globalizations_Interview_with_Leslie_Sklair.pdf) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20100816014925/http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~jhsprague/Sprague_Jeb_2009_Globalizations_Interview_with_Leslie_Sklair.pdf) 2010-08-16 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Slave Ownership"](https://web.archive.org/web/20071203202306/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASownership.htm). Archived from the original on 2007-12-03. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Sociology: Marxism"](https://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/170204-marxism.pdf) (PDF). *Oxford Cambridge and RSA*. 2015. p. 11. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-The_Dominant_Ideology_Thesis_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-The_Dominant_Ideology_Thesis_4-1) Abercrombie, Nicholas; Turner, Bryan S. (1978). ["The Dominant Ideology Thesis"](https://books.google.com/books?id=L6IwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA396). *The British Journal of Sociology*. **29** (2): 149–170. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/589886](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F589886). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [589886](https://www.jstor.org/stable/589886). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Marx, Karl (1875). *Critique of the Gotha Program*. New York, NY: International Publishers Company, Incorporated (published 1987). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-7178-0043-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7178-0043-8). {{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#invalid_isbn_date)) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Wasserstein, Bernard (12 February 2009). [*Barbarism and Civilization: A History of Europe in our Time*](https://books.google.com/books?id=XicFgasYzWQC&q=nomenklatura&pg=PT5). OUP Oxford. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-19-162251-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-162251-9). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Codevilla, Angelo. ["America's Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution"](http://spectator.org/articles/39326/americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution). *The American Spectator*. **2** (July 2010): 19. Retrieved 14 July 2015. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Deirdre Hogan (2007). ["Feminism, Class and Anarchism"](https://usa.anarchistlibraries.net/library/deirdre-hogan-feminism-class-and-anarchism). *The Anarchist Library*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Benjamin Franks. "British Anarchisms and the Miners' Strike": 229. [CiteSeerX](/source/CiteSeerX_(identifier)) [10.1.1.604.4418](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.604.4418). {{[cite journal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_journal)}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#missing_periodical)) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Patrick Cannon (2019). ["Marx's Leviathan"](https://philosophynow.org/issues/131/Marxs_Leviathan). *Philosophy Now* (131). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Dogan, Mattei; Higley, John (2012). "Elites, Crises, and Regimes in Comparative Analysis [1998]". *Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung*. **37** (1 (139)): 278. [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [41756461](https://www.jstor.org/stable/41756461). ## Further reading Wikiquote has quotations related to ***[Ruling class](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:Search/Ruling_class)***. - Dogan, Mattei (ed.), *Elite Configuration at the Apex of Power,* Brill, Leiden, 2003. v t e Social class Status Stratum Economic classes Theories Elite theory Gilbert model Marxian Mudsill theory New class Social privilege Weberian (three-component) Related topics Caste Chattering classes Class conflict Class discrimination Class society Class traitor Classicide Classless society Euthenics High society Nouveau riche / Parvenu Poverty Ranked society Snobbery Social cleansing Social exclusion Social mobility Social orphan Social position Social stigma Subaltern Status Anxiety By demographic By status Administrative detainee Alien illegal immigrant refugee Citizen dual or multiple native-born naturalized second-class Clique adolescent Convicted Migrant worker Political prisoner Socioeconomic Stateless By "collar" Blue Green Grey New Pink White By type Ruling Aristocracy Aristoi Hanseaten Magnate Oligarchy Russian Patrician Ancient Rome Post-Roman Political Family List Hereditary Royal family Intellectual Clergy Priest Knowledge worker Professor Scholar Warrior Chhetri Cossacks Cuāuh Harii Hashashin Knight Kshatriya Ocēlōtl Pendekar Rajanya Jati ("Rāijadāh") Samurai Spartiate Vanniyar/Vanniar (Chieftain) Upper Business magnate Elite Gabellotto Gentry Lord Nobility Landed Petty Old money Overclass Robber baron Seigneur Superclass Creative Bohemians Middle Bourgeoisie Petite Burgher Lower middle class Upper middle class Working Commoner Lazzaroni Lumpenproletariat Pea-pickers Peasant Precariat Proletariat Working poor Under Ant tribe Outcast Outlaw / Prisoner Serf Plebeian Rat tribe Slave Freedman Untouchable By country or region United States Affluence American Dream History Mobility Classes Upper Black Donor Gentry Middle Black Mexican-American Upper Middle Lower Income Household Inequality Personal Poverty Standard of living Education Homelessness Home-ownership Other regions or countries Africa Belize Cambodia China Colombia France Haiti India Iran Italy Luxembourg Nepal New Zealand Nigeria Romania Sri Lanka Tibet United Kingdom United States Historic 18th-century Spain Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Aztec Ottoman Empire Pre-industrial East Asia Pre-industrial Europe Soviet Union Category v t e Political philosophy Terms Authority Citizenship‎ Duty Elite Emancipation Freedom Government Hegemony Hierarchy Justice Law Legitimacy Liberty Monopoly Nation Obedience Peace People Pluralism Power Progress Propaganda Property Regime Revolution Rights Ruling class Society Sovereignty‎ State Utopia War Government Aristocracy Oligarchy Autocracy Bureaucracy Dictatorship Democracy Ochlocracy Gerontocracy Meritocracy Monarchy Tyranny Plutocracy Republic Technocracy Theocracy Ideologies Agrarianism Anarchism Capitalism Christian democracy Colonialism Communism Communitarianism Confucianism Conservatism Corporatism Distributism Environmentalism Fascism Feminism Feudalism Hindutva Imperialism Islamism Liberalism Libertarianism Localism Marxism Monarchism Multiculturalism Nationalism Nazism Populism Republicanism Social Darwinism Social democracy Socialism Third Way Concepts Balance of power Bellum omnium contra omnes Body politic Clash of civilizations Common good Consent of the governed Divine right of kings Family as a model for the state Monopoly on violence Natural law Negative and positive rights Night-watchman state Noble lie Noblesse oblige Open society Ordered liberty Original position Overton window Separation of powers Social contract State of nature Statolatry Supermajority Tyranny of the majority Philosophers Antiquity Aristotle Chanakya Cicero Confucius Han Fei Lactantius Mencius Mozi Plato political philosophy Polybius Shang Sun Tzu Thucydides Xenophon Middle Ages Al-Farabi Aquinas Averroes Bruni Dante Gelasius al-Ghazali Ibn Khaldun Marsilius Muhammad Nizam al-Mulk Ockham Plethon Wang Early modern period Boétie Bodin Bossuet Calvin Campanella Filmer Grotius Guicciardini Hobbes political philosophy James Leibniz Locke Luther Machiavelli Milton More Müntzer Pufendorf Spinoza Suárez 18th and 19th centuries Al-Afghani Bakunin Bastiat Beccaria Bentham Bolingbroke Bonald Burke Carlyle Comte Condorcet Constant Cortés Engels Fichte Fourier Franklin Godwin Haller Hegel Herder Hume Iqbal Jefferson Kant political philosophy Le Bon Le Play Madison Maistre Marx Mazzini Mill Montesquieu Nietzsche Owen Paine Proudhon Renan Rousseau Sade Saint-Simon Smith Spencer de Staël Stirner Taine Thoreau Tocqueville Tucker Voltaire 20th and 21st centuries Agamben Ambedkar Apo Arendt Aron Badiou Bauman Benoist Berlin Bernstein Burnham Chomsky Dmowski Du Bois Dugin Dworkin Evola Fanon Fisher Foucault Fromm Fukuyama Gandhi Gentile Gramsci Guénon Habermas Hayek Hoppe Huntington Kautsky Khomeini Kirk Kropotkin Laclau Lenin Luxemburg Mansfield Mao Marcuse Maurras Michels Mises Mosca Mouffe Negri Nozick Nursi Nussbaum Oakeshott Ortega Pareto Popper Qutb Rand Rawls Röpke Rothbard Russell Sartre Savarkar Schmitt Scruton Shariati Sorel Spann Spengler Strauss Sun Taylor Voegelin Walzer Weber Works Analects of Confucius (c. 475 BCE) Republic (c. 375 BCE) Politics (c. 335 BCE) On the Republic (51 BCE) Siyasatnama (11th century) Treatise on Law (c. 1274) Monarchy (1313) Muqaddimah (1337) The Prince (1532) Patriarcha (1642) Leviathan (1651) Two Treatises of Government (1689) The Spirit of Law (1748) The Social Contract (1762) Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) Rights of Man (1791) Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820) Democracy in America (1835–1840) The Communist Manifesto (1848) On Liberty (1859) The Revolt of the Masses (1929) The Road to Serfdom (1944) The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) A Theory of Justice (1971) The End of History and the Last Man (1992) The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996) Related Authoritarianism Collectivism and individualism Conflict theories Contractualism Critique of political economy Egalitarianism Elite theory Elitism History of political thought Institutional discrimination Jurisprudence Justification for the state Political ethics Political spectrum Left-wing politics Centrism Right-wing politics Religion in politics Christianity Islam Judaism Secular state Separation of church and state State atheism Political violence Separatism Social justice Statism Totalitarianism Category:Political philosophy --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ruling class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruling_class) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruling_class?action=history)). 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