Ruling class

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{{Cquote|Come on baby, eat the rich,<br>bite down on the son of a bitch...|||''Eat The Rich'' by Motörhead<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h45WnW0ASFY From the movie ''Eat The Rich'']</ref>}}
The term '''"ruling class"''' describes the sort of [[social class]] that dominates the political, social, and/or economic life of the polity it rules. Wherever there has been civilization there has always been one or more ruling classes. Examples of ruling classes include the Kshatriyas of [[India]], to the centralized aristocracies of pre-[[WW2]] [[Europe]], to the political elites that dominate the [[United States of America]], [[China]] and [[Russia]] today. Ideally, within a democracy, the ''entire populace'' is the ruling class; in reality, all democracies are still dominated by wealth and social privilege.

Note that the existence of a ruling class does not mean that it has ''total'' control of a polity (the monarchs of old were deposed, after all) and that therefore there may be multiple, competing ruling classes (such as the old nobles, the nascent bourgeois, and the religious clergy of Renaissance Europe).

==Origins==
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The modern idea of a ruling class, as distinct from a group of individual rulers, stems largely from [[Karl Marx]]'s writings. Marx spoke of the ruling class, the capitalist [[bourgeois]], being overthrown by the underclass, the [[proletariat]] ("Workers of the world, unite!"). A large number of people spent decades [[Stalin|making]] [[Mao|enormous]] [[Pol Pot|messes]] trying to implement Marx's vision. Meanwhile, the workers of the world were actually uniting in [[labor union]]s and successfully demanding better working conditions and failing{{fact}}, slowly having their plications removed such as the NHS in the UK slowly being defunded.{{fact}}

==Abuse of the term==
Originally, in [[Marx]]'s writings, "bourgeois" meant "of, relating to, or characteristic of the owners of the means of production". For leaders of the [[USSR]], "bourgeois" eventually meant the equivalent of "of, relating to, or characteristic of [[Satan]]". "Bourgeois art" (art that wasn't conducive to the USSR's goals), "[[bourgeois pseudoscience]]" (science that didn't ''feel'' pro-communist),<ref group=note>For many years in the [[Soviet Union]], studying [[genetics]] or [[sociology]] was ''verboten'', these sciences having been classified as "bourgeois pseudoscience". This mentality eventually led to [[Lysenkoism]], an abomination of evolutionary theory.</ref> and so on were repressed by totalitarian rule. Furthermore, being accused of having a "petty-bourgeois mentality" could mean excommunication from communist circles and sometimes earned one a trip to the [[gulag]] or the [[Capital punishment|gallows]].{{fact}}

==See also==
*[[Social class]]
*[[Working class]]
*[[Oligarchy]]
*[[Modern art and architecture]]

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Anthropology]]
[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Social justice]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Socialism]]
[[Category:Capitalism]]

Categories: Anthropology, Culture, Political terms, Sociology, Social justice, Communism, Socialism, Capitalism