Petite bourgeoisie

Petite bourgeoisie (French pronunciation: [pətit(ə) buʁʒwazi], lit. 'small bourgeoisie'; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) in Marxist theory is a social class composed of small business owners, shopkeepers, small-scale merchants, semi-autonomous peasants, and artisans. They are named as such because their politico-economic ideological stance in times of stability is reflective of the proper haute bourgeoisie (high bourgeoisie or upper class). In ordinary times, the petite bourgeoisie seek to identify themselves with the haute bourgeoisie, whose bourgeois morality, conduct and lifestyle they aspire to and strive to imitate.

The term, which goes as far back as the Revolutionary period in France, is politico-economic and addresses historical materialism. It originally denoted a sub-stratum of the middle classes in the 18th and early-19th centuries of western Europe. In the mid-19th century, the German economist Karl Marx and other Marxist theorists used the term petite bourgeoisie to academically identify the socio-economic stratum of the bourgeoisie.

Definition

The petite bourgeoisie is economically distinct from the proletariat, or working class, which relies entirely on the sale of their labour-power for survival. It is also distinct from the capitalist class haute bourgeoisie ('high' bourgeoisie), defined by owning the means of production and thus deriving most of their wealth from buying the labour-power of the proletariat and to work the means of production.

Although members of the petite bourgeoisie can buy the labour of others, they typically work alongside their employees, unlike the haute bourgeoisie. Examples can include shopkeepers, artisans and other smaller-scale entrepreneurs.