Bourgeoisie

The bourgeoisie are a social class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted with the proletariat by their wealth, political power, and education, as well as their access to and control of cultural, social, and financial capital.

The bourgeoisie in its original sense is intimately linked to the political ideology of liberalism and its existence within cities, recognised as such by their urban charters (e.g., municipal charters, town privileges, German town law), so there was no bourgeoisie apart from the citizenry of the cities. Rural peasants came under a different legal system.

In Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat form an antagonistic relationship based on the former's exploitation of the latter's labour within the system known as capitalism. The main activity of the bourgeoisie within this framework is the accumulation of capital through the ownership and control of the means of production such as factories, land, and technology. By employing the proletariat, they extract surplus value from the workers' labour, a process fundamental to the functioning and expansion of the system. Consequently, their primary objective is the constant reinvestment and preservation of this capital to maintain their economic and political dominance, a position that is sharply contrasted by the working class they exploit. According to Marxists, the bourgeoisie will eventually be overthrown by the proletariat. Following this revolution, as the exploitation of labour is abolished and a classless society is established, the bourgeoisie would cease to exist.