Does the Middle Class Tend to Disappear? Marx, Trotsky or….?
In 1938 Trotsky wrote a brilliant introduction to The Communist Manifesto :
“Ninety Years of the Communist Manifesto” by Leon Trotsky
https://www.marxists.org/.../trotsky/1937/10/90manifesto.htm
He raised several important points vindicating the basic ideas of the Manifesto. He also laid out several criticisms. One of his criticisms was that Marx and Engels had telescoped the decomposition of the intermediate classes. They predicted that the intermediate classes between the capitalists and workers would more and more disappear into the proletariat and bourgeoisie.
Trotsky thought that in contrast to Marx’s prediction, the intermediate classes had grown. Trotsky even said that in Germany 50% of the population belonged to those classes. He attributed this to the state promoting these classes and to the decomposition of capitalism. He said that the petty bourgeoisie( small owners of productive property) was being ruined faster than it could be proletarianized. He saw this process as part of the decay of capitalism which lay the basis for fascism or proletarian revolution. Trotsky was writing from a particular vantage point during the Great Depression which caused very high unemployment. Today, nearly 90 years after Trotsky wrote, the new middle class and petty bourgeoisie do not constitute as large a section of the population in advanced capitalist countries as he described. In the U.S. today many analysts see the working class as 75–80% of the population. Trotksy likely overestimated the intermediate classes even in 1938.
Over 85 years later, it is clear that Trotsky was also telescoping. There are two processes in capitalism in relation to the petty bourgeoisie and the new middle class. On the one hand proletarianization is an ongoing process. The capitalists want to exploit as much labor power as possible. Part of this is the need to exploit professionals who had been independent and therefore part of the petty bourgeoisie. The opposite process is the creation of the new middle class whose function is to further the exploitation of the working class. The role of managers and administrators is to ensure that capitalist production goes on smoothly. Capitalists are willing to pay this layer to ramp up exploitation of workers.
However, this layer costs Capital some of its profit. Capitalists therefore try to reduce these costs. There are periodic layoffs of middle managers when capitalists feel they no longer need them. This is parallel to the creation and destruction of skilled jobs under capitalism. When new processes start up the workers take on wide aspects of the new process. They are usually highly skilled. Capitalism constantly tries to cheapen the cost of Labor power by de-skilling occupations. Which of these trends is dominant at any given time will determine whether there is an expansion or a contraction of skilled labor. Likewise, there is an expansion or contraction of the new middle class and the petty bourgeoisie based on these contradictory processes.
Holding out the hope of leaving the working class and becoming a member of the petty bourgeoisie or new middle class is an ideological method to undermine the solidarity of the proletariat. However, this method costs capitalists some of their capital. Also, creating more members of the petty bourgeoisie undermines the ability of capital to exploit these potential workers. These contradictory processes will cause different political policies promoted by different sections of the ruling class depending on where they see their interests lying. One trend or another will predominate at any given time. It is wrong to ignore either trend i.e. proletarianization or creation of middle elements.
Considering the history of capitalism from its beginning, Marx was of course correct that the proletariat grew as the petty bourgeoisie declined. Capitalism has indeed created its own gravediggers. However , this process is not steady and uncomplicated over the whole history of capitalism.
Trotsky was correct that Marx overestimated proletarianization at the expense of the other processes but Trotsky went too far in the other direction.
