Petite Bourgeoisie - Definition

Definition

The petite bourgeousie are economically distinct from the proletariat and the lumpenproletariat, who are social-class strata who entirely rely on the sale of their labor-power for survival; and also are distinct from the capitalist class haute bourgeoisie (high bourgeoisie) who own the means of production, and thus can buy the labor-power of the proletariat and lumpenproletariat to work the means of production. Though the petite bourgeoisie can buy the labor of others, unlike the haute bourgeoisie, they typically work alongside their employees; and, although there are business owners, they do not own a controlling share of the means of production. Because the means of production owned by the petite bourgeoisie do not generate enough surplus value to permit the accumulation of capital to be reinvested to production, they cannot be economically reproduced in scale sufficient to constitute capital proper.

Historically, Karl Marx predicted that the petite bourgeoisie were to lose in the course of economic development; in the event, they were to become the political mainstay of Fascism, which political reaction was their terroristic response to the inevitable loss of power (economic, political, social) to the haute bourgeoisie.