The bourgeoisie, or how democracy was born
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Introduction
The bourgeoisie * was the first politically significant middle class to develop in Europe. This article provides a simple story of how it came about, and it closes by making a point about what this might mean for people living in a democracy today.
Vilified by Marxists
Misinterpreting Karl Marx' writings, Marxists and their relatives in political philosophy * referred to the bourgeoisie as the enemy of the proletariat, a class of people that repressed the poor workers of society.
From their teachings the word 'bourgeois' came to carry connotations of decadence and conservatism, bringing up images of fat, wealthy owners of big businesses, with gold chains around their necks and a disdain for anything 'below them' in society. This image was a handy tool used by socialist demagogues* in the Cold War, to demonize the capitalists on the other side of the iron curtain.
But Marx was actually quite an admirer of the bourgeoisie. They were the first people to discover their political identity and significance, demanding of the aristocracy the power to rule that was rightfully theirs...
A short history of bourgeois development
Evading the Lord
In the days before democracy and capitalism, the Old World (Europe) was ruled by the aristocracy. This class consisted of Kings and noblemen, who lived in castles and led lives of opulence while the rest of the people served them as subjects, slaving away night and day in the fields to please their lord. * Roughly, we refer to this age as Medieval, and it lasted from around 500 to 1500.
Around the end of these Middle Ages, something began to stir. Some people were traveling the countryside, selling things, from tools to trinkets, to information about faraway places. These people were merchants, and because of their traveling life and their value as tradesmen they were largely left alone by the lords and Kings.
In a sense, they grew quite powerful because of this, but because of their constant travels they could not really take root in society to exert much of it. It wasn't until the invention of city walls and the safety they provided, that the aristocracy had any real reason to feel threatened.
Born within the walls
Walled cities were like castles, only with a much larger amount of people in them, and no lord. City walls kept out the local lords, and after a while the significance of some cities grew so large, they were granted 'city rights' the most important one being the right to self-governance. Lords in whose territory such cities arose had little option in this, because what was happening was this.
In a city, people did things that had nothing to do with working for the nobility. Cities were basically large protected market places, catering to the traveling merchants who came to sell, and to those in the region who came to town to buy.
Eventually, people who came to buy stayed in the city, and started making things to sell as well. Craftsmen, blacksmiths, keepers of inns and taverns, they stuck around and didn't go back to the fields to slave for the lord. And eventually the walls around the city protected them from any lord who would try to get at them, leaving the noblemen no choice but to let them govern themselves.
Baby democracy
This was actually democracy in a primitive form. Only the rich people could have a say in how the city would be governed, and there was still a large tribute to be paid to the lords. But their grip on the cities was loosening.
The people who lived in these cities, protected from the lords made money. Not only that, but they also officially owned what they bought or used to work with, or the houses they lived in. This was a tremendous change, since before that, everything belonged to the local lord, even the people themselves. But people who went to live in cities became free, free to buy and sell and own. What they earned and owned, they could re-invest in their livelyhood*, and so they came to posess and earn more and more.
Eventually cities were home to people who owned more than the lords around them, and they were becoming a force to be reckoned with. They were people with political significance, but not of the nobility. They were citizens in England, burgers in Holland, or bourgeois in France*.
Private Lives, Public Power
These citizens, with their growing wealth, came to be in a situation where they no longer had to slave many hours of every day to survive. They began to develop a private life, which was nobody's business but their own. They began to enjoy freedom and spare time, the time to have fun, read, and write, and think. Think about what was going on. How they were governed, how they should be governed, who should govern them, or whether it would be better if perhaps they were the ones who governed. These are what we now call public issues and they were discussed in the public sphere.
This too was a change, since before, there had been no question about who was to rule, that was the divine right of the King and the nobility. You were either born a ruler, or you weren't. That idée fixe changed, and suddenly the divine right was no longer so logical anymore. There were people who were thinking about public issues a lot, and they were writing about them and convincing others, and they were developing public lives apart from their private ones.
This meant more change. The lives of the aristocracy had been all-public, from the waking up* to the going to bed*, their job was to rule and this meant to continuously decide over public issues. This in contrast to their subjects, who had nothing to do with public matters and thus can be said to have lived all-private lives.
So, what is the bourgeoisie?
Concluding, the bourgeoisie was a class of people who were not of the nobility, but did come to have a significance where public issues were involved. They were the people who brought about democracy.
In closing: A Warning
This means that democracy is not something we have had around since forever, and something we should not take for granted. Today, there are some processes going on in the world which are not only limiting the time and opportunity normal people have to think about public issues, but also the public sphere to voice their opinions in. Other people are starting to live lives again that can be considered all-public, like movie stars, or the presidents of large countries*.
These developments are causing democracy to decline, and if they are to be reversed, then surely a first step is to recognise they are happening and understand their importance to the democracy we like to enjoy.
