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-{{Redirect|Bourgeois||Bourgeois (disambiguation)}}
-{{Refimprove|date=January 2014}}
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-[[File:Le-bourgeois-gentilhomme.jpg|thumb|right|The prototypical bourgeois: Monsieur Jourdain, the protagonist of the play ''[[Le Bourgeois gentilhomme]]'' (1670), by [[Molière]],  is the best would-be nobleman that money can buy.]]
-{{Labour}}
-{{Libertarian socialism}}
-'''Bourgeoisie''' (Eng.: {{IPAc-en|b|ʊər|ʒ|w|ɑː|ˈ|z|iː}}; {{IPA-fr|buʁʒwazi}}) is a word from the French language, used in the fields of [[political economy]], [[political philosophy]], [[sociology]], and [[history]], which originally denoted the wealthy stratum of the [[middle class]] that originated during the latter part of the [[Middle Ages]] (AD 500–1500).<ref>Bourgeoisie, “burguesía” in the ''Diccionario de la Real Academia Española'' (1994)</ref><ref>''Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language'' — Unabridged (1951) p. 205.</ref> The utilization and specific application of the word is from the realm of the [[social sciences]].
-In sociology and in political science, the noun '''bourgeoisie''' and the adjective '''bourgeois''' are terms that describe a historical range of [[Social class|socio-economic classes]]. As such, in the [[Western world]], since the late 18th century, '''the bourgeoisie''' describes a [[social class]] "characterized by their ownership of [[capital (economics)|capital]], and their related [[Cultural hegemony|culture]]"; hence, the personal terms '''bourgeois''' (masculine) and '''bourgeoise''' (feminine) culturally identify the man or woman who is a member of the wealthiest social class of a given society, and their [[Economic materialism|materialistic]] [[worldview]] (''[[Weltanschauung]]''). In [[Marxist philosophy]], the term ''bourgeoisie'' denotes the social class who owns the [[means of production]] and whose societal concerns are the value of [[property]] and the preservation of capital, in order to ensure the perpetuation of their economic supremacy in society.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/b/o.htm#bourgeois-society Bourgeois Society]</ref> [[Joseph Schumpeter]] instead saw the creation of new bourgeoisie as the driving force behind the capitalist engine, particularly entrepreneurs who took risks in order to bring innovation to industries and the economy through the process of [[creative destruction]].<ref>Joseph A. Schumpeter, ''Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy',' pages 83-84, 134</ref>
-==Etymology==
-The Modern French word ''bourgeois'' derived from the [[Old French]] ''burgeis'' (walled city), which derived from ''bourg'' ([[market town]]), from the [[Old Frankish]] ''burg'' (town); in other European languages, the etymologic derivations are the [[Middle English]] ''burgeis'', the [[Middle Dutch]] ''burgher'', the German ''Bürger'', the [[Modern English]] ''[[Burgess (title)|burgess]]'', and the Polish ''burżuazja'', which occasionally is synonymous with the [[intelligentsia]].<ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology'' C.T. Onions, Editor (1995) p. 110.</ref> In English, “bourgeoisie” (a French citizen-class) identified a [[social class]] oriented to [[economic materialism]] and [[hedonism]], and to upholding the extreme political and economic interests of the capitalist ruling class.<ref>''Oxford English Reference Dictionary'' Second Edition (1996) p. 196.</ref> In the 18th century, before the [[French Revolution]] (1789–99), in the French [[feudalism|feudal order]], the masculine and feminine terms ''bourgeois'' and ''bourgeoise'' identified the rich men and women who were members of the urban and rural [[Estates General (France)|Third Estate]] — the common people of the French realm, who violently deposed the [[absolute monarchy]] of the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] King [[Louis XVI]] (r. 1774–91), his clergy, and his [[French nobility|aristocrats]]. Hence, since the 19th century, the term "bourgeoisie" usually is politically and sociologically synonymous with the ruling [[upper class]] of a capitalist society.<ref>''Dictionary of Historical Terms'' Chris Cook, Editor (1983) p. 267.</ref>
-Historically, the medieval French word ''bourgeois'' denoted the inhabitants of the ''bourgs'' (walled market-towns), the [[craft]]smen, [[artisan]]s, [[merchant]]s, and others, who constituted "the bourgeoisie", they were the socio-economic class between the peasants and the landlords, between the [[Working class|workers]] and the owners of the [[means of production]]. As the economic managers of the (raw) materials, the goods, and the services, and thus the [[capital (economics)|capital]] (money) produced by the feudal economy, the term "bourgeoisie" evolved to also denote the middle class — the businessmen and businesswomen who accumulated, administered, and controlled the capital that made possible the development of the bourgs into cities.<ref name="The Columbia Encyclopedia 1994">“Bourgeoisie”, ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Fifth Edition. (1994) p. 0000.</ref>
-Contemporarily, the terms "bourgeoisie" and "bourgeois" identify the ruling class in capitalist societies, as a social stratum; while "bourgeois" describes the ''Weltanschauung'' ([[worldview]]) of men and women whose way of thinking is socially and culturally determined by their [[economic materialism]] and [[philistinism]], a social identity catalogued and described in ''drame bourgeois'' (bourgeois drama), which satirizes buying the trappings of a noble-birth identity as the means climbing the social ladder.<ref>''Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia'' Third Edition (1987) p. 118, p. 759.</ref><ref name="Molière, ed. Warren 1899">Molière, ed. Warren 1899</ref> (See: ''[[Le Bourgeois gentilhomme]]'', 1670.)
-[[File:Fuggerkontor.jpg|thumb|left|200px||The 16th-century German banker [[Jakob Fugger]] and his principal accountant, M. Schwarz, registering an entry to a ledger. The background shows a file cabinet indicating the European cities where the Fugger Banker conducts business. (1517)]]
-==History==
-'''Origins and rise'''<br>
-In the 11th century, the bourgeoisie emerged as a historical and political phenomenon, when the ''bourgs'' of Central and Western Europe developed into cities dedicated to [[commerce]]. The organised economic concentration that made possible such urban expansion derived from the protective self-organisation into [[guilds]], which became necessary when individual businessmen ([[craft]]smen, [[artisan]]s, [[merchant]]s, ''et alii'') conflicted with their [[rent-seeking]] feudal [[Feudal land tenure|landlord]]s who demanded greater-than-agreed [[Economic rent|rent]]s. In the event, by the end of the [[Middle Ages]] (ca. AD 1500), under régimes of the early national [[Monarchy|monarchies]] of Western Europe, the bourgeoisie acted in self-interest, and politically supported the king or the queen against the [[Legitimacy (political)|legal]] and [[Finance|financial]] disorder caused by the greed of the feudal lords.{{Citation needed|date=January 2014}} In the late-16th and early 17th centuries, the bourgeoisies of England and the Netherlands had become the financial — thus political — forces that deposed the [[Feudalism|feudal order]]; economic power had vanquished military power in the realm of politics.<ref name="The Columbia Encyclopedia 1994"/>
-'''From progress to reaction'''<br>
-During the 17th and 18th centuries, the bourgeoisie were the politically [[Progressivism|progressive]] [[social class]] who supported the principles of [[Constitution|constitutional government]] and of [[natural right]], against the [[Law of Privilege]] and the claims of [[Divine right of kings|rule by divine right]] that the [[nobility|nobles]] and [[prelate]]s had autonomously exercised during the feudal order. The motivations for the [[English Civil War]] (1642–51), the [[American War of Independence]] (1775–83), and [[French Revolution]] (1789–99) partly derived from the desire of the bourgeoisie to rid themselves of the feudal trammels and royal encroachments upon their personal liberty, commercial rights, and the ownership of [[property]]. In the 19th century, the bourgeoisie propounded [[liberalism]], and gained political rights, religious rights, and civil liberties for themselves and the lower social classes; thus was the bourgeoisie then a progressive philosophic and political force in modern Western societies.
-By the middle of the 19th century, subsequent to the [[Industrial Revolution]] (1750–1850), the great expansion of the bourgeoisie [[social class]] caused its [[social stratification|self-stratification]] — by business activity and by economic function — into the ''haute bourgeoisie'' ([[bank]]ers and [[Industry|industrialists]]) and the ''[[petite bourgeoisie]]'' ([[Tradesman|tradesmen]] and [[white-collar worker]]s). Moreover, by the end of the 19th century, the capitalists (the original bourgeoisie) had ascended to the [[upper class]], whilst the developments of [[technology]] and [[Trade (occupation)|technical occupations]] allowed the ascension of working-class men and women to the lower strata of the bourgeoisie; yet the social progress was incidental.
-In the event, despite its initial philosophic progressivism — from [[feudalism]] to [[liberalism]] to [[capitalism]] — the bourgeoisie social class (haute and petite) became [[reactionary]] in their refusal to allow the ascension (economic, social, political) of people from the [[proletariat]] ([[peasants]] and [[Working class|urban workers]]) in order to maintain hegemony.<ref name="The Columbia Encyclopedia 1994"/>
-==Denotations==
-{{Marxism}}
-=== The Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie ===
-In the [[Middle Ages]] (AD 500–1500), the bourgeois usually was a self-employed businessman — such as a merchant, banker, or entrepreneur — whose economic role in society was being the financial intermediary to the [[Feudalism|feudal]] [[Feudal land tenure|landlord]] and the [[peasant]] who worked the [[fief]], the land of the lord. Yet, by the 18th century, the time of the [[Industrial Revolution]] (1750–1850) and of [[industrial capitalism]], the bourgeoisie had become the economic [[ruling class]] who owned the [[means of production]] (capital and land), and who controlled the means of coercion ([[armed forces]] and [[court|legal system]], [[police|police forces]] and [[prison system]]). In such a society, the bourgeoisie’s ownership of the means of production enabled their employment and exploitation of the wage-earning [[working class]] (urban and rural), people whose sole economic means is labour; and the bourgeois control of the means of coercion suppressed the socio-political challenges of the lower classes, and so preserved the economic status quo; workers remained workers, and employers remained employers.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/class-struggles-france/index.htm The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850], Works of Karl Marx, 1850</ref>
-In the 19th century, the German economist [[Karl Marx]] distinguished two types of bourgeois capitalist: (i) the functional capitalist, the business administrator of the means of production; and (ii) the rentier capitalist whose livelihood derives either from the [[Economic rent|rent]] of property or from the [[interest]]-income produced by finance capital, or both.<ref>''A Dictionary of Marxist Thought'', T.B. Bottomore, p. 272</ref> In the course of economic relations, the working class and the bourgeoisie continually engage in [[class struggle]], wherein the capitalists [[exploitation|exploit]] the workers, whilst the workers resist their economic exploitation, which occurs because the worker owns no means of production, and, to earn a living, he or she seeks employment from the bourgeois capitalist; the worker produces goods and services that are property of the employer, who sells them for a price. The money generated by the sale of the goods and services yields three sums (i) the wages of the worker, (ii) the costs of production, and (iii) [[profit (accounting)|profit]]  (surplus value). Thereby, the capitalist profits (makes extra money) by selling the surplus value of the labour of the workers; hence is new wealth [[Labour theory of value|created through work]].
-Besides describing the social class who own the [[means of production]], the Marxist usage of the term "bourgeois" also describes the [[Consumerism|consumerist]] style of life derived from the ownership of [[Capital (economics)|capital]] and [[real property]]. As an economist Karl Marx acknowledged the bourgeois industriousness that created wealth, yet criticised the moral hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie when they ignored the true origins of their wealth — the exploitation of the proletariat, the urban and rural workers. Further sense denotations of “bourgeois” describe ideologic concepts such as “bourgeois freedom”, which is opposed to substantive forms of freedom; “bourgeois independence”; “bourgeois personal individuality”; the “bourgeois family”; et cetera, all derived from owning capital and property. (See: ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'', 1848.)
-=== Nomenclatura ===
-In the 20th century, some [[communist state]]s, particularly the Soviet Union, developed a [[nomenklatura]], constituted by the bureaucrats who administrated the country’s government, industry, agriculture, education, system of [[state capitalism]], et cetera. This [[New class]] can be considered a reconstitution of the bourgeoisie within a purportedly socialist state.
-=== In France and French-speaking countries ===
-In English, the term  'bourgeoisie' is often used to denote the middle classes. In fact, the French term encompasses both the upper and middles classes,{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} a misunderstanding which has occurred in other languages as well. The 'bourgeoisie' consists of four evolving social layers: 'la petite bourgeoisie', 'la moyenne bourgeoisie', 'la grande bourgeoisie', and 'la haute bourgeoisie'.
-'''''La Petite Bourgeoisie'''''<br>
-The 'petite bourgoisie' consists of people who have experienced a brief ascension in [[social mobility]] for one or two generations.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} It usually starts with a trade or craft, and by the second and third generation, the person may have risen to the ranks of the 'moyenne bourgeoisie'. This class would belong to the British middle middle class and would be part of the American lower middle class. They are distinguished mainly by their mentality, and would differentiate themselves from the proletariat. This class would include artisans, small traders, shopkeepers, and small farm owners. They are not employed, but may not be able to afford employees themselves.
-'''''La Moyenne Bourgeoisie'''''<br>
-People who belong to the ''moyenne bourgeoisie'' have solid incomes and assets, but without the aura of the 'grande bourgeoisie'. They tend to belong to a bourgeois family that has been bourgeois for three or more generations.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} Some members of this class may have relatives from similar backgrounds, or even have aristocratic connections. The 'moyenne bourgeoisie' would be the equivalent of the British and American upper-middle classes.
-'''''La Grande Bourgeoisie'''''<br>
-The ''grande bourgeoisie'' are families that have been bourgeois since the 19th century, or have been bourgeois for at least four or five generations.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} Members of these families tend to marry with the aristocracy or make other advantageous marriages (advantageous, like all marriages in all social classes). This bourgeoisie has a large historical and cultural heritage, which has accumulated over the decades. The names of these families are generally known in the city where they reside, and their ancestors have often contributed to the region's history. These families are respected and revered. They belong to the upper class, and in the British class system would qualify as 'gentry'. In the French-speaking countries they are sometimes called 'la petite haute bourgeoisie'.
-'''''La Haute Bourgeoisie'''''<br>
-The ''haute bourgeoisie'' is a social rank in the bourgeoisie that can only be acquired through time. In France, it is composed of bourgeois families that have existed since the French Revolution.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} They hold only honorable professions and have experienced many illustrious marriages in their family's history. The cultural and historical heritage are large, and their financial means are more than secure. These families exude an aura of nobility, which prevents them from certain marriages or occupations. Due to  circumstances, the lack of opportunity, and political regime, they have not been ennobled, and remain simply 'bourgeois'. These people nevertheless live a lavish lifestyle, enjoying the company of the greatest artists of their time. In France, the families of the 'haute bourgeoisie' are referred to as 'les 200 familles', a term which was coined in the first half of the 20th century. Michel Pinçon and Monique Pinçon-Charlot have studied the lifestyle of the French bourgeoisie, and how they boldly guard their world from the 'nouveau riche' or 'new money'.
-In the French language, the 'bourgeoisie' is almost designated as a caste by itself, even though social mobility into this socio-economic group is possible. Nevertheless, the French term differentiates itself from 'la classe moyenne', which consists mostly of white-collar employees. This is where further confusion arises, as the English language does not make this separation when referring to the different layers of the middle class. To complicate things further, a 'bourgeois' may appear to have a white-collar job, when in reality they hold a 'profession libérale', which 'la classe moyenne' in its definition is not entitled to.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} Yet, in English the definition of a white-collar job encompasses the 'profession libérale'. As the world becomes globalized and society moves towards a corporate one, 'la bourgeoisie' in its pure form has become a somewhat outdated term,{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} which requires a more up-to-date definition.
-==Modern history==
-'''Fascist Italy'''<br>
-Because of their ascribed [[cultural]] excellence as a social class, the [[Italian fascism|Italian fascist]] régime (1922–45) of Prime Minister [[Benito Mussolini]] regarded the bourgeoisie as an obstacle to [[Modernism]] in aid to transforming Italian society.<ref name=Bellassai05>Bellassai, Sandro (2005) “The Masculine Mystique: Anti-Modernism and Virility in Fascist Italy”, ''Journal of Modern Italian Studies'', 3, pp. 314–335.</ref> Nonetheless, despite such intellectual and social hostility, the Fascist State ideologically exploited the Italian bourgeoisie and their materialistic, middle-class spirit, for the more efficient cultural manipulation of the upper (aristocratic) and the lower (working) classes of Italy. In 1938, Prime Minister Mussolini gave a speech wherein he established a clear ideological distinction between [[capitalism]] (the social function of the bourgeoisie) and the bourgeoisie (as a social class), whom he dehumanized by reducing them into high-level abstractions: a moral category and a state of mind.<ref name=Bellassai05 /> Culturally and philosophically, Mussolini isolated the bourgeoisie from Italian society by portraying them as social parasites upon the Fascist Italian State and “The People”; as a social class who drained the human potential of Italian society, in general, and of the [[working class]], in particular; as exploiters who victimized the Italian nation with an approach to life characterised by [[hedonism]] and [[Consumption (economics)|materialism]].<ref name=Bellassai05 /> Nevertheless, despite the slogan ''The Fascist Man Disdains the ″Comfortable″ Life'', which epitomized the anti-bourgeois principle, in its final years of power, for mutual benefit and profit, the Mussolini Fascist régime transcended ideology in order to merge the political and financial interests of Prime Minister Benito Mussolini with the political and financial interests of the bourgeoisie, the Catholic social circles who constituted the [[ruling class]] of Italy.
-Philosophically, as a [[Materialism|materialist]] creature, the bourgeois man was irreligious; thus, to establish an [[Existentialism|existential]] distinction between the supernatural faith of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and the materialist faith of temporal religion; in ''The Autarchy of Culture: Intellectuals and Fascism in the 1930s'', the priest Giuseppe Marino said that:
-{{Quotation|Christianity is essentially anti-bourgeois . . . A Christian, a true Christian, and thus a [[Catholic (Christian terminology)#Use by the Catholic Church|Catholic]], is the opposite of a bourgeois.<ref>Marino, Giuseppe Carlo (1983) L'autarchia della cultura. Intellettuali e fascismo negli anni trenta, Roma: Editori Riuniti.</ref>}}
-Culturally, the bourgeois man is unmanly, effeminate, and infantile; describing his [[philistinism]] in ''Bonifica antiborghese'' (1939), Roberto Paravese said that the:
-{{Quotation|Middle class, middle man, incapable of great virtue or great vice: and there would be nothing wrong with that, if only he would be willing to remain as such; but, when his child-like or feminine tendency to camouflage pushes him to dream of grandeur, honours, and thus riches, which he cannot achieve honestly with his own “second-rate” powers, then the average man compensates with cunning, schemes, and mischief; he kicks out ethics, and becomes a bourgeois.<p>The bourgeois is the average man who does not accept to remain such, and who, lacking the strength sufficient for the conquest of essential values — those of the spirit — opts for material ones, for appearances.<ref name=paravese39>Paravese, Roberto (1939) "Bonifica antiborghese", in Edgardo Sulis (ed.), ''Processo alla borghesia'', Roma: Edizioni Roma, pp. 51–70.</ref>}}
-The economic security, [[discretionary income|financial freedom]], and social mobility of the bourgeoisie threatened the philosophic integrity of [[Italian Fascism]], the [[ideology|ideologic monolith]] that was the [[fascist regime|régime]] of Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. Any assumption of [[Legitimacy (political)|legitimate]] political power (government and rule) by the bourgeoisie represented a Fascist loss of [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] State power for social control through political unity — one people, one nation, one leader. Sociologically, to the fascist man, to become a bourgeois was a character flaw inherent to the masculine mystique; therefore, the ideology of Italian Fascism scornfully defined the bourgeois man as “spiritually castrated”.<ref name=paravese39 />
-[[File:Thomas Mann in 1926.jpg|thumb|right|165px|[[Thomas Mann]] (1875–1955) portrayed the moral, intellectual, and physical decadence of the German upper bourgeoisie in the novel ''[[Buddenbrooks]]'' (1926)]]
-[[File:Molière - Nicolas Mignard (1658).jpg|thumb|right|165px|The 17th-century French playwright Molière (1622–73) catalogued the social-climbing essence of the bourgeoisie in ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'' (1670).]]
-[[File:Luis Buñuel.JPG|thumb|right|165px|The Spanish cinéast [[Luis Buñuel]] (1900–83) depicted the tortuous mentality and self-destructive hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie]]
-==Bourgeois culture==
-'''Cultural hegemony'''<br>
-Karl Marx said that the culture of a society is dominated by the [[Cultural hegemony|mores of the ruling-class]], wherein their superimposed [[value system]] is abided by each social class (the upper, the middle, the lower) regardless of the socio-economic results it yields to them. In that sense, contemporary societies are bourgeois to the degree that they practice the [[mores]] of the small-business “shop culture” of early modern France; which the writer [[Émile Zola]] (1840–1902) [[Naturalism (literature)|naturalistically]] presented, analysed, and ridiculed in the twenty-two-novel series (1871–1893) about ''[[Les Rougon-Macquart]]'' family; the thematic thrust is the necessity for social progress, by subordinating the economic sphere to the social sphere of life.<ref>Émile Zola, ''Le Rougon-Macquart'' (1871–1893).</ref>
-'''Conspicuous consumption'''<br>
-The critical analyses of the bourgeois mentality by the German intellectual [[Walter Benjamin]] (1892–1940) indicated that the shop culture of the [[petite bourgeoisie]] established the sitting room as the centre of personal and family life; as such, the English bourgeois culture is a sitting-room culture of [[social class|prestige]] through [[conspicuous consumption]]. The [[Consumerism|material culture]] of the bourgeoisie concentrated upon mass-produced [[luxury goods]] of high quality; generationally, the only variance was the materials with which the goods were manufactured. In the early part of the 19th century, the bourgeois house contained a home that first was stocked and decorated with hand-painted [[porcelain]], machine-printed cotton fabrics, machine-printed [[wallpaper]], and Sheffield steel ([[crucible steel|crucible]] and [[stainless steel|stainless]]), the [[utility]] of which was inherent to its practical functions. Whereas, in the latter part of the 19th century, the bourgeois house contained a home that had been remodelled by conspicuous consumption, whereby the goods were bought to display wealth ([[discretionary income]]), rather than for their practical utility. The bourgeoisie had transposed the wares of the shop window to the sitting room, where the clutter of display signalled bourgeois success.<ref name="Benjamin">[[Walter Benjamin]], ''The Halles Project''.</ref>  (See: ''[[Culture and Anarchy]]'', 1869.)
-Two spatial constructs manifest the bourgeois mentality: (i) the shop-window display, and (ii) the sitting room. In English, the term “sitting-room culture” is synonymous for “bourgeois mentality”, a [[philistine]] cultural perspective from the [[Victorian Era]] (1837–1901), especially characterised by the repression of emotion and of sexual desire; and by the construction of a regulated social-space where “[[Victorian morality|propriety]]” is the key personality trait desired in men and women.<ref name="Benjamin" /> Nonetheless, from such a psychologically constricted [[worldview]], regarding the rearing of children, contemporary sociologists claim to have identified “progressive” middle-class values, such as respect for non-conformity, self-direction, [[autonomy]], [[gender equality]] and the encouragement of innovation; as in the Victorian Era, the transposition to the U.S. of the bourgeois system of social values has been identified as a requisite for employment success in the professions.<ref name="The American Class Structure">{{cite book | last = Gilbert | first = Dennis | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 1998 | title = The American Class Structure | publisher = Wadsworth Publishing | location = New York | id = 0-534-50520-1}}</ref><ref name="Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships">{{cite book | last = Williams | first = Brian | authorlink = |author2=Stacey C. Sawyer|author3=Carl M. Wahlstrom | year = 2005 | title = Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships | publisher = Pearson | location = Boston, MA | id = 0-205-36674-0}}</ref>
-'''Representations'''<br>
-Beyond the [[Intellectualism|intellectual]] realms of [[political economy]], [[history]], and [[political science]] that discuss, describe, and analyse the '''bourgeoisie''' as a social class, the colloquial usage of the [[sociology|sociological]] terms '''bourgeois''' and '''bourgeoise''' describe the social [[stereotype]]s of the Old Money and of the ''[[Nouveau riche]]'', who is a politically timid conformist satisfied with a wealthy, [[consumerism|consumerist]] style of life characterised by [[conspicuous consumption]] and the continual striving for [[Social status|prestige]].<ref>Howard Zinn. ''A People’s History of the United States'' (1980)</ref><ref>Sven Beckert “Propertied of Different Kind: Bourgeoisie and Lower Middle Class in the Nineteenth-Century United States” in ''The Middling Sorts: Explorations in the History of the American Middle Class'' (2001) Burton J. Bledstein and Robert D. Johnston, Eds. (2001)</ref> This being the case, the cultures of the world describe the [[philistinism]] of the middle-class personality, produced by the excessively rich life of the bourgeoisie, is examined and analysed in comedic and dramatic plays, novels, and films. (See: [[Authenticity (philosophy)|Authenticity]].)
-'''Theatre'''<br>
-''[[Le Bourgeois gentilhomme]]'' (The Would-be Gentleman, 1670) by [[Molière]] (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), is a comedy-ballet that [[Satire|satirizes]] Monsieur Jourdain, the prototypical [[nouveau riche]] man who buys his way up the social-class scale, in order to realise his aspirations of becoming a gentleman, to which end he studies [[Dance|dancing]], [[fencing]], and [[philosophy]], the trappings and accomplishments of a gentleman, in order to be able to pose as a man of [[Nobility|noble birth]], someone who, in 17th-century France, was a man to the manor born; Jourdain’s self-transformation also requires managing the private life of his daughter, so that her marriage can also assist his social ascent.<ref name="Molière, ed. Warren 1899"/><ref>''Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia'' Third Edition (1987) p. 118, p. 512.</ref>
-'''Literature'''<br>
-''[[Buddenbrooks]]'' (1901), by [[Thomas Mann]] (1875–1955), chronicles the [[Morality|moral]], intellectual, and [[Inbreeding#Humans|physical]] decay of a rich family through its declines, material and spiritual, in the course of four generations, beginning with the [[Patriarchy|patriarch]] Johann Buddenbrook Sr. and his son, Johann Buddenbrook Jr., who are typically successful German businessmen; each is a reasonable man of solid character. Yet, in the children of Buddenbrook Jr., the materially comfortable style of life provided by the dedication to solid, [[middle-class]] [[Value system|values]] elicits decadence: The fickle daughter, Toni, lacks and does not seek a purpose in life; son Christian is honestly decadent, and lives the life of a ne’er-do-well; and the businessman son, Thomas, who assumes command of the Buddenbrook family fortune, occasionally falters from middle-class solidity by being interested in [[art]] and [[philosophy]], the impractical [[Intellectualism|life of the mind]], which, to the bourgeoisie, is the epitome of social, moral, and material decadence.<ref>''Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia'' Third Edition (1987) p. 118, p. 137.</ref><ref>Charles Neider, ''The Stature of Thomas Mann'' (1968)</ref><ref>Wolfgang Beutin, ''A history of German Literature: From the Beginnings to the Present Day'' (1993) Routledge, 1993, ISBN 0-415-06034-6, p. 433.</ref>
-''[[Babbitt (novel)|Babbitt]]'' (1922), by [[Sinclair Lewis]] (1885–1951), satirizes the American bourgeois George Follansbee Babbitt, a middle-aged [[realtor]], [[Boosterism|booster]], and joiner in the Midwestern city of Zenith, who — despite being unimaginative, self-important, and hopelessly conformist and middle-class — is aware that there must be more to life than money and the [[Conspicuous consumption|consumption]] of the best things that money can buy. Nevertheless, he fears [[Ostracism|being excluded]] from the mainstream of society more than he does living for himself, by [[Authenticity (philosophy)|being true to himself]] — his heart-felt flirtations with independence  (dabbling in [[Liberalism|liberal politics]] and a love affair with a pretty widow) come to naught because he is existentially afraid.
-Yet, George F. Babbitt sublimates his desire for self-respect, and encourages his son to rebel against the conformity that results from bourgeois prosperity, by recommending that he be true to himself:
-{{Quotation|Don’t be scared of the family. No, nor all of Zenith. Nor of yourself, the way I’ve been.”<ref>''Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia'' Third Edition (1987) p. 65.</ref>}}
-'''Films'''<br>
-The comedy films by the Spanish film director [[Luis Buñuel]] (1900–83) examine the mental and moral effects of the bourgeois mentality, its culture, and the stylish way of life it provides for its practitioners.
-* ''[[L'Âge d'or|L’Âge d’or]]'' (The Golden Age, 1930) illustrates the madness and self-destructive hypocrisy of bourgeois society.
-* ''[[Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie]]'' (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, 1972) explores the timidity instilled by middle-class [[Value system|values]].
-* ''[[Cet obscur objet du désir]]'' (That Obscure Object of Desire, 1977) illuminates the practical self-deceptions required for buying love as marriage.<ref>see this [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000625/REVIEWS08/6250301/1023 review] by Roger Ebert</ref><ref>Kinder (ed.) 1999</ref>
-== See also ==
-{{Columns-list|3|
-* [[Beurgeois]] (affluent French Muslims of North-African descent)
-* [[Bildungsbürgertum]]
-* [[Burgess (title)|Burgess]]
-* [[Conspicuous consumption]]
-* [[Conspicuous leisure]]
-* [[Cultural hegemony]]
-* [[Economic stratification]]
-* ''[[Gemütlichkeit]]''
-* [[Grand Burgher]] (German ''Großbürger'')
-* [[Habitus (sociology)]]
-* [[Homo economicus]]
-* [[Occupational prestige]]
-* [[Petite bourgeoisie]]
-* [[Political class]]
-* The [[Proletariat]], the opposite of the Bourgeoisie
-* [[Rational-legal authority]]
-* [[Social environment]]
-* [[Social structure of the United Kingdom]]
-* ''[[The Theory of the Leisure Class|The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions]]'' (1899)
-* ''[[Vecino]]''
-}}
-==References==
-'''Notes'''
-{{Reflist|2}}
-'''Further reading'''
-* Bledstein, Burton J. and Johnston, Robert D. (eds.) [http://books.google.com/books?id=Omg8HUiwthAC ''The Middling Sorts: Explorations in the History of the American Middle Class'']. Routledge. 2001.
-* [[David Brooks (journalist)|Brooks, David]], [http://books.google.com/books?id=5R6Bx3LRBuEC ''Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There'']. Simon & Schuster. 2001.
-* Byrne, Frank J. [http://books.google.com/books?id=90ZHraBlhr8C ''Becoming Bourgeois: Merchant Culture in the South, 1820-1865'']. University Press of Kentucky. 2006.
-* Hunt, Margaret R. [http://books.google.com/books?id=W47a6jQOJYQC ''The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England, 1680–1780'']. University of California Press. 1996.
-* Kinder, Marsha. (ed.) [http://books.google.com/books?id=0vgAWhasEncC ''Luis Buñuel's ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie]. Cambridge University Press. 1999.
-* Lockwood, David. [http://books.google.com/books?id=1ZZgPgAACAAJ ''Cronies or Capitalists? The Russian Bourgeoisie and the Bourgeois Revolution from 1850 to 1917'']. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2009.
-* [[Molière]], and Warren, Frederick Morris (ed.) [http://books.google.com/books?id=T0oBAAAAYAAJ ''Molière's ''Le bourgeois gentilhomme]. D.C. Heath & Co. 1899. (full text)
-* Siegel, Jerrold. [http://books.google.com/books?id=TnUgrSFm1YIC ''Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830–1930'']. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1999.
-* Stern, Robert W. [http://books.google.com/books?id=kb_z1KghC1oC ''Changing India: Bourgeois Revolution on the Subcontinent'']. Cambridge University Press. 2nd edition, 2003.
-== External links ==
-{{Wiktionary}}
-{{wikiquote}}
-*[http://www.gegenstandpunkt.com/english/state/toc.html The Democratic State] &ndash; A Critique of Bourgeois Sovereignty
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