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Industrial Revolution, Working-class political movements, Class-based…
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Class-based society
Characteristics
Upper class, characterised by high levels of wealth, property and
income: nobility and bourgeois capitalists.
Middle class: civil servants, lawyers, doctors, small merchants,
artisans and farmers with lands.
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People's social class was determined by their profession and wealth: their income, their ownership of land or business and their wages.
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In theory, all citizens were equal under the law, without special privileges. In practice, there were great economic inequalities.
Society was open, so people's social class could change if their personal situation changed.
Left-wing ideologies
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Anarchism
Mikhail Bakunin, rejected the dictatorship of the
proletariat and proposed an ideal society based on:
Individual freedom:
People had to fight against any authority or
institution (the state or the Church, for example) that limited their
freedom.
Communes:
Society would be reorganised into small, independent groups
called communes in which all decisions would be taken by popular
assemblies and the profit would be shared up basing on everyone’s work.
Direct action:
People had to defend their interests and fight for their
freedom through their own actions, not through political parties or
elections. For some Anarchists, direct action included violent attacks and
even murder.
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Harsh working conditions led to protests against factory owners, who opposed
workers' demands because they thought that improving conditions could be bad for
business and reduce profits.