Middle Class In The Process Of Industrial Society

The historical course of modernization of human societies and the developments of Western modernized countries have shown that after the development of material and political civilization reaches some level the population of the extreme poor and rich will be decreased and that of the middle class will bulge, hence a olive-like social strata structure will appear due to the changes of social strata structure brought out by industrialization and post-industrialization. The severe changes in social stratification and the acceleration of social mobility imply the potential danger of instability in future society. The olive-like social structure is thought as the most stable one and the special social functions of the middle class are helpful to maintain social stability. The middle class will play more and more roles in the historical course of modernization of human societies.1. Concept of the Middle ClassThe middle stratum or middle class is a term from English. Chinese and Western scholars have done much research of the concept in different discipline perspectives. They given this concept different meaning, and then it got some disaccords.Traditionally, most European scholars excluded aristocrats, peasants, physical laborers and lower classes from the middle class. In the twentieth century they divided the middle class into two parts: one part is the middle class in the economic meaning, which "including merchants, manufacturers, bankers, capitalists, enterprisers, managers, rentiers and their families. The other part is the educated middle class, including medicals, lawyers, clergymen, scientists and other specialists, intellectuals, university professors and administrators and officials in public and private institutions.Some American scholars regard the group between the upper class and the lower one as the middle class. There is a distinction between "old middle class" and "new middle class", in which the former refers to the independent enterprisers (or the medium and minor enterprisers), farmers and the like and the later means company managers,white-collars, specialists, governmental officials and the like. Professor Samue I P. Hays thinks that the former refers to enterprisers and independent specialists while the later includes clerks, salesmen, governmental employees, technical experts and salaried specialists.Some Russian scholars deny the existence of the middle class in today's Russia while others admit its existence and think that the middle class is the social group having something to do with the steady development of national economics and politics. "In the countries of developed market economics and democratic politics, the middle class refers to those between the upper and lower, who are the group of the greatest population and the agent of many functions, most important ones of which are 'stability device' for a society and the reproduction resource of skilled workers."The scholars in China understand the concept of the middle class in a different perspectives: by the standard of income and wealth, the middle class is those of medium income; by the standard of nature of works, they are those doing brainwork, namely, administrators in governments and enterprises, specialists, teachers and researchers, commercial persons, secretaries and the like; by the integrative standard concerning careers, income, education, values, ways of life, etc., they are those located in the middle layer in the society; by the standard of domains, they are those in social administration, knowledge production, service industries and others.Conclusively, the characters of the middle class can be stated as follows:1) The middle class as a social phenomenon has become the subject of many disciplines; as a concept, it has been also used in many disciplines.2) The middle class is a relatively blurry concept in terms of income.3) The middle class as backbone of a society has the same functions in different countries even though it manifests different characters.4) The middle class is very characteristic of temporal and local features.2. Two Methods And Their Development Concerning Social Classes Including the Middle ClassTwo methods are usually used in the analyses of social stratum and class structures.One is Marxist theory of class analysis and the new class analysis theory of Western Marxism. The other one is the social stratification analysis theory developed by Max Weber.Marx studied the social stratification from production relation. Class viewpoint is the basic way of marxism, the way of class analysis is a basic way for Marx to analysis social Structure and social stratification. In his later years, Marx actually foresaw a kind of special employed laborers who are different both from petty bourgeoisie and from workers, a middle class between proletariat and bourgeois, and it will increase as the elevation of productivity and the production power. After Marx, Western Marxism has redefined the concept of social class developed by Marx according to the emergence of the middle class in modern capitalist countries and taken it as the basis to examine the characters and properties of the middle class in reality hence many "new theories of middle class" have been produced, such as "the theory of new petty bourgeoisie", "the theory of new working class", "the theory of new middle class" and "the theory of new specialist-administrant class".Max Weber put forward an integrative standard of social stratification: there are classes in economic fields, status or social honor in social fields and political factions (parties) in political fields. In his opinion, "the phenomenon of power distribution in a community is 'classes', 'hierarchy' and 'political parties'," from which he has developed his theory of social stratification. After Weber, Anthony Giddens among other western scholars noticed Weber's theory awkward in explaining the situation in non-market societies; Hence they brought forward a series of new theories.This thesis, we will take the Materialist conception of history and class analysis as our guide to study the problem.and we also take care of the other theory about the social stratification, on one hand, aims to explain the relative stable social structure based on class theory, on the other hand, to represent the dynamic diagram of the dividing and composing of benefits in the social transformation period in the multiple thinking perspectives. In the positive analyses of cases, a standard of multiple level, namely, the elements such as power, income and honor will be taken in account, will be applied.3. The Formation And Development of the Middle ClassThe formation and development of the middle class in Western Europe is an inevitable historical consequence. From the viewpoint of the features of time, there are at least the elements as follows that advances the growth of the middle class.First of all, the establishment of democratic systems in Western Europe offered the political guarantee for the birth and growth of the middle class. Secondly, the unprecedented development the economics of capitalist great industry not only vastly increased wealth of the society but also brought acute shocks to social structure and economical structure. Thirdly, the establishment and development of social security systems promoted continuously and implemented by Western governments have made a middle class. And finally, the promulgation and development of education have hastened enlargement of the middle class.In the United States, the middle class is a product of historical change of free economics in the nineteenth century. This historical change altered the way of life in rural and urban areas as well as the old mode of production and from which the middle class emerged and continuously become the social backbone.The great number of free farmers consists of the bulk of the middle class in the United States in nineteenth century while the minor enterprisers in small towns laid the forcing house for the development of the middle class. In the twentieth century, the middle class entered the stage of American society and became the nucleus and main power.The emergence of the middle class in Russia has a direct relation with the radical changes in ownership and the formation of a new capital. A new social class, that is middle class, emerged with the new capitals, the changes of social structures and reproduction of social stratum. It is still in formation, but its main inscapes are becoming apparent.The formation and development in China can be divided into three stages: the emergence stage, from late nineteenth century through early twentieth century to 1949 when the New China was set up; the extinction stage, from 1949 to 1978; renascence and development stage, from 1978 up today.In a word, be it in Europe, the United States, Russia or China, the emergence and development of the middle class is an inevitable consequence of the changes in social structure, the drastic division of the social stratification, the rapid development of economics and the promulgation of education. But there are many differences between China and Europe, China and U.S., and China and Russia.4. The Functions of the Middle ClassThe functions of the middle class are different in different countries and historical periods. In Britain the prominent functions of the middle class is that of a social balancer while in the United States the middle class have been exerting many great social functions. Its typical function in late nineteenth century and late twentieth century is to be pioneers social reforms while in 1950's its function is to be propellants and pacemakers of knowledge economics. In India the middle class was the foundation stone of political steadiness during Nehru time. And in China, the middle class is the propeller of social modernization.The main functions of the middle class can be stated as follows: (1) to maintain social steadiness, (2) to promote economical development and (3) to advance democratic politics and to introduce new ideas of values.5. The Strategic Meditation on the Development of the Middle ClassThe strategies to development of the middle class adapted by The German Social and Democratic Party is as follows: to subsidize newly-established and the most minor enterprises to create a friendly environment for the growth of the middle class; to provide a financial assurance for the development of middle class; to decrease bureaucratic model schemes; to finance professional training and to encourage the development of foreign oriented economics, etc.The strategies in Russia are as follows: to make policies to support the medium and minor enterprises; to make a timetable for the development of the middle class; to cultivate the New Middle Class (2001-2008); to enlarge the bulk of the middle class and to build the vast social foundation for the middle class (2009-2015).