Abstract:
After World War II, under the joint action of various factors such as scientific and technological revolution, economic globalization, and the self-regulation mechanism of capitalist countries, the contemporary capitalist class structure has surpassed the binary model of mutual opposition between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the Marxist era. Instead, it presents a complex “picture” intertwined by technology, finance and global supply chains. The increase in the number of rentier strata and senior managers within the bourgeoisie, the continuation of the monopoly position of the capitalist class and the expansion of the power of the emerging capitalist class, the increase in the number of the working class, the improvement of its structure, education level and social status, the new changes in the middle class, and the rise of the transnational bourgeoisie, etc., all reflect this trend. In this context, some views that try to deconstruct class theory, such as “the theory of the disappearance of class subjects” and “the theory of the extinction of the proletariat”, have also emerged one after another. However, after an in-depth analysis of the motives and essence of the changes in the contemporary capitalist class structure, it can be seen that although the class form has undergone a certain degree of reconstruction, the essence of contemporary bourgeois exploitation and the historical subject status of the working class have not changed. Marxist class theory still has profound correctness and contemporary applicability.