Bourgeoisie

In Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie is the class that owns or controls the means of production. Its position enables it to employ wage workers and appropriate surplus value.

Means of production: The resources and instruments used to produce goods and services, including land, factories, tools, and infrastructure. Ownership or control of these productive resources defines the bourgeoisie's position in Marxist class analysis.
Bourgeois: A historical term for a town-dweller or member of the urban property-owning classes. The Marxist class name grew from this earlier social designation.
Petite bourgeoisie: A class of small proprietors who own limited productive assets and often work alongside employees or family members. Its small-scale ownership distinguishes it from the large capitalist owners typically meant by bourgeoisie.
Capitalism: An economic system in which productive assets are predominantly privately owned and production is organized for profit. The bourgeoisie is the class that owns or controls productive capital within this system.
Wage labour: A system in which workers sell their capacity to work to an employer in exchange for wages. Bourgeois firms purchase workers' labor power to organize production.
French Revolution: The political and social upheaval in France beginning in 1789 that ended the monarchy and transformed European politics. The revolution advanced the political power of property-owning groups later described as bourgeois.
Aristocracy: A hereditary social elite whose status and power traditionally derive from noble rank, land, or political privilege. Marx distinguishes the modern bourgeoisie's economic power from aristocratic privilege rooted in inherited status.
Bourgeois revolution: A political transformation that weakens feudal relations and advances capitalist property and political institutions. Marxist histories describe these revolutions as consolidating bourgeois class power.
Surplus value: In Marxist theory, the value produced by workers beyond the value represented by their wages. Marx argues that capitalists appropriate this surplus through ownership of production.
Industrial Revolution: The transformation from predominantly agrarian economies to mechanized industrial production, beginning in Britain in the eighteenth century. Industrial growth expanded the factory-owning class central to Marx's account.

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