Failing to ally with radicalized petty bourgeois drives them toward the ruling class

Evidence

Islamism, then, both mobilizes popular bitterness and paralyzes it; both builds up people’s feelings that something must be done and directs those feelings into blind alleys; both destabilizes the state and limits the real struggle against the state. The contradictory character of Islamism follows from the class base of its core cadres. The petty bourgeoisie as a class cannot follow a consistent, independent policy of its own. This has always been true of the traditional petty bourgeoisie—the small shopkeepers, traders and self-employed professionals. They have always been caught between a conservative hankering for security that looks to the past and a hope that they individually will gain from radical change. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 354 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Failing to integrate masses into the state produces a stunted, dependent ruling class; A sub-proletariat can become the conservative bastion of a monarch against bourgeois revolution; Absorbing rival elites into the ruling bloc decapitates and neutralizes opposition (+1 more)

Related

• Islamism’s contradictions stem from the class base of its petty bourgeois cadres. (similarity 0.90)
• Islamists are strong advocates of capitalism despite anticapitalist rhetoric (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Islamism’s contradictions stem from the class base of its petty bourgeois cadres. #exemplifies (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 354
• Absorbing rival elites into the ruling bloc decapitates and neutralizes opposition #complicates (0.75)