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Explanation for Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century to now, the bourgeoisie is a social class characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture. A member of the bourgeoisie is a bourgeois or capitalist. They are a part of the middle or merchant classes, and derived social and economic power from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from social classes whose power came from being born into an aristocratic family of titled land owners granted feudal privileges by the monarch. The bourgeoisie emerged from late feudal and early modern towns, through the control of long distance trade and petty manufacture. Bourgeois and bourgeoisie originate in the French language, meaning "city-dweller" (from bourg, cf. German Burg). Marxism defines the bourgeoisie as the social class that owns the means of production in a capitalist society. Marxism views the group as emerging from the wealthy urban classes in pre- and early capitalist societies. In contemporary societies, the term bourgeoisie can refer to middle, upper middle, and/or upper classes, and/or their lifestyle and values. These terms have stronger connotations of retiring, sitting room culture in European contexts. Bourgeois often refers to the cloistering, socially conservative, idle customs of the newly rich.