Class Conflict

A Class Conflict is a social conflict between social classes (e.g. between the rich class and the poor class).

• Context:
  • It can be associated with Socioeconomic Competition.
  • It can arise from disparities in wealth, power, and social standing, such as between the elite class or rich class and the working class or poor class.
  • It can be fueled by resource scarcity, differences in ideologies, economic disparities, and struggles for political power.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • A Landowner vs. Tenant Farmer Conflict.
  • A Capitalist Society Class Conflict, wherein the industrial owners wield more power than the labor class, which can result tin strikes and protests where workers demand better wages and conditions from their employers.
  • A Technology-Induced Class Conflict.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Ethnic Conflict, where the main division is based on ethnicity.
  • Religious Conflict, centered around religious beliefs.
• See: Class Difference, Working Class, Capital Flight, Social Inequality, Proletariat, Bourgeoisie.

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References

2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_conflict Retrieved:2023-7-19.
  • In political science, the term class conflict (also class struggle, class warfare, capital-labour conflict) identifies the political tension and economic antagonism that exist among the social classes of society, because of socioeconomic competition for resources among the social classes, between the rich and the poor. In the political and economic philosophies of Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin, class struggle is a central tenet and a practical means for effecting radical sociopolitical changes for the social majority, the working class.

    The forms of class conflict include direct violence, such as wars, for access to and control of natural resources and labour; assassinations and revolution; indirect violence, such as death from poverty and starvation, illness and unsafe working conditions; economic coercion, such as the threat of unemployment and capital flight, the withdrawal of investment capital; and ideologically, by way of political literature.The political forms of class warfare include lobbying (legal and illegal) and bribery of legislators. The social-class conflict can be direct, as in a dispute between labour and management such as an employer's industrial lockout of their employees in effort to weaken the bargaining power of the corresponding trade union; or indirect such as a workers' slowdown of production in protest against unfair labor practices, low wages, and poor working conditions.

2000

• (Sullivan et al., 2000) ⇒ Teresa A Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook. (2000). “The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt." Yale University Press. ISBN:0300091710

2019

• (Dahrendorf, 2019) ⇒ R. Dahrendorf. (2019). “Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society.” In: Social Stratification, Class, Race, and Gender in …, Link to the source on Taylor & Francis.
  • QUOTE: One of the main questions which the present investigation is supposed to answer is: Do classes and class conflicts belong to that group of phenomena by which only the capitalist type …
  • NOTE: Investigates the relevance and existence of class conflicts specifically within capitalist societies.

1995

• (Kelley & Evans, 1995) ⇒ J Kelley, MDR Evans. (1995). “Class and Class Conflict in Six Western Nations.” In: American Sociological Review, Link to the source on JSTOR.
  • QUOTE: ... of class: They make most people think they are middle class, … class and subjective perceptions of class and class conflict, … of class relations, and attenuating the links between class and …
  • NOTE: Explores the perception of class and the resulting conflicts in six western nations, emphasizing on the subjective perception of one's class.

1982

• (Przeworski & Wallerstein, 1982) ⇒ A Przeworski, M Wallerstein. (1982). “The structure of class conflict in democratic capitalist societies.” In: American Political Science Review, Link to the source on Cambridge.
  • QUOTE: ... But Marx may have erred in analyzing the nature of this conflict. … a class coalition that encompasses both workers and capitalists. Our purpose is to examine the structure of class conflict …
  • NOTE: Delve into Marx's analysis of class conflicts in capitalist societies, suggesting possible inaccuracies and offering their insights into the structure of such conflicts.

1848

• (Marx & Engels, 1848) ⇒ Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels. (1848). “The Communist Manifesto."

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