Marxists assumed working-class pressure drove all egalitarian gains

Evidence

Since the writings of Marx in 1848, it has been assumed that the drive for a more equalitarian society, its effective social force, would come from the stratum of society with the most to gain, the working classes. This was thought to be the revolutionary force in the world—the demand of workers for a classless society sparked by their hostility to the owning classes. It was to be the elite among the workers, not the lumpenproletariat, not the “scum,” who were to advance this movement. Just as “liberty” was the central slogan of the bourgeois revolution, so “equality” was the central concept in the working class movement. Hence it was natural to assume that whatever gains have been made in equalizing the income and status of men in our society came about largely from working class pressure. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2137

Categorization

• QUESTION: The empirical test of whether working-class pressure actually caused egalitarian gains is presumably the chapter’s follow-up subject — worth tracking.
• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on who actually drives progressive change (elites vs. masses), and to the reader’s interest in class and political power. — connects to: Classical Marxists always defended liberal democratic rights against the right — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 456