Fragmented rural property spawns a disruptive stratum of appointment-seekers

Evidence

The petit-bourgeois morto di fame came originally from the rural bourgeoisie. Property gets broken up among large families until it vanishes altogether, but the members of this class are not prepared to work with their hands. In this way there is formed a famished stratum of aspirants to minor municipal appointments, as clerks, messengers, etc. This stratum constitutes a disruptive element in the life of the countryside, always thirsting for changes (elections, etc.) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1014

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the imagined-community strand of the reader’s toolkit — this petty intellectual stratum is the carrier of emergent national/political consciousness.