Critical Approaches Theoretical Review

the very rich, secondly, the mean middle class, and thirdly the very poor. These three classes will determine whether a government built is good or bad. Based on his opinion, the middle class is the best class who takes the rule. He wrote: …moderation and the mean are best and therefore it will clearly be best to possess the gifts of fortune in moderation; for in that condition of life men are most ready to follow rational principle. But he who greatly excels in beauty, strength, birth, or wealth, or on the other hand who is very poor, or very weak, or very much disgraced, finds it difficult to follow rational principle… Those who have too much of the goods of fortune, strength, wealth, friends and the like, are neither willing nor able to submit to authority. The evil begins at home; for when they are boys, by reason of the luxury in which they are brought up, they never learn, even at school, the habit of obedience. On the other hand, the very poor, who are in the opposite extreme, are too degraded. So that the one class cannot obey, and can only rule despotically; the other knows not how to command and must be ruled like slaves. Aristotle 1 The class that is in charge of ruling will build the characteristics of a country and also a community. Aristotle wants to show that middle class will bring a community into a good one. Living in a middle class situation enables a person to understand the situation of a rich man or a poor man. This situation will also enable the person to act rationally towards two “extreme” classes; the rich one and the very poor one. Wisely then did Phocylides pray - “Many things are best in the mean; I desire to be of a middle condition in my city Aristotle 1 .” The role of the middle class also has a great contribution in building whether a country is democratical or oligarchical controlled by a small group of people. When there are numbers of the middle class in a government, the government will be democratic. In the other hand, if the rich one or the poor one takes the chance, it can be predicted that the governmental will be oligarchical. Democracies are safer and more permanent than oligarchies, because they have a middle class which dominates and has a greater share in the government; for when there is no middle class, and the poor greatly exceed in number, troubles arise, and the state soon comes to an end Aristotle 2.

c. Karl Marx ’s Theory of Social Classes

Karl Marx based his theory in an economic point of view. According to Marx history may be divided into several periods, for example, ancient civilization, feudalism, and capitalism. Each of these periods is characterized by a predominant mode of production and, based upon it, a class structure consisting of a ruling and an oppressed class. The struggle between these classes determines the social relations between men. In particular, the ruling class, which owes its position to the ownership and control of the means of production, controls also, though often in subtle ways, the whole moral and intellectual life of the people. According to Marx, law and government, art and literature, science and philosophy; all serve more or less directly the interests of the ruling class Bendix 6. The social classes are built based on the position which the individual occupies in the social organization Bendix 8. Therefore, the income or occupation does not always determine hisher class position. For example, if two men are carpenters, they belong to the same occupation, but one may run a small shop of his own, while another works in a plant manufacturing pre-fabricated housing; the two men belong to the same occupation, but to different social classes. In the production world where people earn for living, conflict is not avoidable. The experience of economic, conflict would prompt the members of a social class to develop common beliefs and common actions. According to Marx, there are five variables which would facilitate this process Bendix 8: firstly, the conflicts over the distribution of economic rewards between the classes; secondly, easy communication between the individuals in the same class-position so that ideas and action-programs are readily disseminated; thirdly, growth of class- consciousness in the sense that the members of the class have a feeling of solidarity and understanding of their historic role; fourth, profound dissatisfaction of the lower class over its inability to control the economic structure of which it feels itself to be the exploited victim; and fifth, establishment of a political organization resulting from the economic structure, the historical situation and maturation of class-consciousness. Thus, the organization of production provides the necessary but not a sufficient basis for the existence of social classes. The five points; repeated conflicts over economic rewards, the growth of class consciousness, the growing dissatisfaction with exploitation which causes suffering in psychological as much as in material term, etc are the conditions which help to overcome the differences and conflicts between individuals and groups within the class and encourage the formation of a class conscious political organization.