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Lumpenbourgeoisie is a term used in colonial sociology to describe members of the middle class^[1] and upper class^[2] (merchants, lawyers, industrialists, etc.)^[3] who have little collective self-awareness or economic base^[1] and who support the colonial masters.^[1]^[2] It is often attributed to Andre Gunder Frank in 1972,^[1]^[4] although the term is already present in several texts by Lukács (1943), Koestler (1945), C. Wright Mills (1951) and also in Paul Baran's The Political Economy of Growth (1957). Nonetheless, the term was popularized by Frank's book Lumpenbourgeoisie and Lumpendevelopment: Dependency, Class and Politics in Latin America (1972) which used it in its title.

A compound of the German word Lumpen (rags) and French word bourgeoisie, it follows Karl Marx's concept of the lumpenproletariat, a rejected underclass that sides readily with the elite bourgeoisie.

In Latin America in the 1970s

The term is most often used in the context of Latin America.^[4]^[3] Frank writing on the origins of the term^[4] noted that he created this neologism,^[1] lumpenbourgeoisie, from lumpenproletariat and bourgeoisie. But although the colonial and neocolonial elites in Latin America were similar to European bourgeoisie on many levels, noted Frank, they had one major difference. This difference was in the former's mentality akin to that of the Marxist lumpenproletariat, the "refuse of all classes" (as described in Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon) who are easy to manipulate to support the capitalist system, often turning to crime.^[4] The colonial elites would—although not involved in crime activities—hurt the local economy by aiding the foreign exploiters.^[4]^[5] Foreign colonial powers want to acquire resources and goods found in the colonies, and they find this facilitated through the incorporation of the local elites into the system, as these latter become intermediaries between the rich colonial buyers and the poor local producers.^[5] The local elites then become increasingly reliant on the system in which they supervise the gathering of the surplus production from the colonies, taking their cut before the remaining goods are sold abroad.^[5] Frank termed this economic system lumpendevelopment ^[5] and the countries affected by it lumpenstates.^[3]

Prior usage

The term "lumpen-bourgeois" was used as early as 1906 by Bulgarian Marxist Dimitar Blagoev in his book "Contribution to the History of Socialism in Bulgaria".^[6] In Austria, the term "Lumpenbourgeoisie" had already been used in 1920 by Hungarian communist Béla Kun (using the pen name Blasius Kolozsváry).^[7] It can also be found in numerous other Austrian and German socialist publications from the 1920s.^[8] Joseph L. Love wrote that the term is misattributed to Frank ^[9] and was in fact coined by C. Wright Mills in White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951).^[10] However, in the 1940s, "lumpen bourgeoisie" – or "lumpen-bourgeoisie" – had already appeared in Lukács^[11] and Koestler.^[12]

In The Black Bourgeoisie (1957), which was translated from the original French text that was published in 1955, E. Franklin Frazier uses the term to describe African-American businessmen who cling to what he terms the "myth of Negro business" to affect meaningful change in racial politics.^[13] He was especially focused on the development of black-owned business that developed and expanded in both the U.S. South and North during the first decades of the 20th century.

Later usage

An example of usage of the term after Frank is that by Czech philosopher Karel Kosík in 1997. In his article, Lumpenburžoazie a vyšší duchovní pravda ("Lumpenbourgeoisie and the higher spiritual truth"), Kosik defines "the lumpenbourgeoisie" as "a militant, openly anti-democratic enclave within a functioning, however half-hearted and thus helpless democracy".

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Kapcia Antoni, Antoni Kapcia, Havana: The Making of Cuban Culture, Berg Publishers, 2005, ISBN 1-85973-837-0, Google Print, p.15
^ ^a ^b William Edwin Segall, School Reform in a Global Society, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, ISBN 0-7425-2461-2, Google Print p.146
^ ^a ^b ^c David Harrison, The Sociology of Modernization and Development, Routledge, 1988, ISBN 0-415-07870-9, Google Print, p.83
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hosam Aboul-Ela, Other South: Faulkner, Coloniality, and the Mariategui Tradition, Univ of Pittsburgh Press, 2007, ISBN 0-8229-4314-X, Google Print, p.73
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d David Seth Preston, Contemporary Issues in Education, Rodopi, 2005, ISBN 90-420-1684-1, Google Print, p.58
^ Благоевъ, Д., Приносъ къмъ историята на социализма въ България, Sofia, Socialist Party Publishing House, 1906, pp. 70, 71, 73, 74, etc.
^ Kolozsváry, B., Von Revolution zu Revolution, Wien, Genossenschaftsverlag der "Neuen Erde", 1920, p. 45, 47; the text was published also in Hungarian, Forradalomról forradalomra
^ https://www.google.com/search?q=Lumpenbourgeoisie&hl=en&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F1920%2Ccd_max%3A12%2F31%2F1929&tbm=bks ^{[bare URL]}
^ Joseph L. Love, Third World' a response to professor Worsley, Third World Quarterly, Volume 2, Issue 2 April 1980, pages 315 – 317
^ Mills, C. Wright,White collar; the American middle classes; archive.org
^ LUKÁCS, G. The Struggle of Humanism and Barbarism. 1. Racial Theory: Enemy of Human Progress. State Publishing House of the USSR, 1943.
Quote: "The organs of white terror in the past reactionary coups were usually made up of mercenaries, of soldiery bribed and corrupted by fanatics, of the lumpen proletariat and the lumpen bourgeoisie."
^ KOESTLER, Arthur. The Intelligentsia (Autumn 1945), in The Yogi and the Commissar and other Essays.
Quote: "Thus the intelligentsia, once the vanguard of the ascending bourgeoisie, becomes the Lumpen-Bourgeoisie in the age of its decay."
^ Frazier, E. Franklin (1957). Black Bourgeoisie. New York: The Free Press. p. 173.

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+{{Short description|Colonial sociology term}}
-'''Lumpenbourgeoisie''' is a term used primarily in the context of [[Colonialism|colonial]] and [[neocolonial]] [[elite]]s in [[Latin America]], which became heavily dependent on and supportive of the [[neocolonial]] powers. It is a [[Hybrid word|hybrid]] [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] of the [[German language|German]] word ''Lumpen'' ("rags") and the [[French language|French]] word ''[[bourgeoisie]]''.
+{{Imperialism Studies sidebar|expanded=Related}}
+'''Lumpenbourgeoisie''' is a term used in colonial [[sociology]] to describe members of the [[middle class]]<ref name="Haw" /> and [[upper class]]<ref name="sch">William Edwin Segall, ''School Reform in a Global Society'', Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, {{ISBN|0-7425-2461-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uZkRjQCQaa4C&dq=Lumpenbourgeoisie&pg=PA146 Google Print p.146]</ref> (merchants, lawyers, industrialists, etc.)<ref name="Harr" /> who have little collective self-awareness or economic base<ref name="Haw" /> and who support the colonial masters.<ref name="Haw" /><ref name="sch" /> It is often attributed to [[Andre Gunder Frank]] in 1972,<ref name="Haw">Kapcia Antoni, Antoni Kapcia, ''Havana: The Making of Cuban Culture'', Berg Publishers, 2005, {{ISBN|1-85973-837-0}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mhHyhaIlRx4C&dq=lumpenbourgeoisie+coined+frank&pg=PA15 Google Print, p.15]</ref><ref name="Hos">Hosam Aboul-Ela, ''Other South: Faulkner, Coloniality, and the Mariategui Tradition'', Univ of Pittsburgh Press, 2007, {{ISBN|0-8229-4314-X}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UZXlyfcNOBYC&dq=Lumpenbourgeoisie&pg=PA73 Google Print, p.73]</ref> although the term is already present in several texts by [[György Lukács|Lukács]] (1943), [[Arthur Koestler|Koestler]] (1945), [[C. Wright Mills]] (1951) and also in [[Paul A. Baran|Paul Baran]]'s ''The Political Economy of Growth'' (1957).  Nonetheless, the term was popularized by Frank's book ''Lumpenbourgeoisie and Lumpendevelopment: Dependency, Class and Politics in Latin America'' (1972) which used it in its title.
+A compound of the German word ''Lumpen'' (rags) and French word ''bourgeoisie'', it follows [[Karl Marx]]'s concept of the [[lumpenproletariat]], a rejected underclass that sides readily with the elite [[bourgeoisie]].
-==in Latin America in the 1970s==
-Lumpenbourgeoisie is a term often attributed to [[Andre Gunder Frank]] in 1972<ref name="Haw">Kapcia Antoni, Antoni Kapcia, ''Havana: The Making of Cuban Culture'', Berg Publishers, 2005, {{ISBN|1-85973-837-0}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mhHyhaIlRx4C&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=lumpenbourgeoisie+coined+frank&source=web&ots=NbTIIxZxOH&sig=YeStIQWHOzLtikzq8hDWKUwdKak&hl=en Google Print, p.15]</ref><ref name="Hos">Hosam Aboul-Ela, ''Other South: Faulkner, Coloniality, and the Mariategui Tradition'', Univ of Pittsburgh Press, 2007, {{ISBN|0-8229-4314-X}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UZXlyfcNOBYC&pg=PA73&dq=Lumpenbourgeoisie&as_brr=3&ei=lQEASM-BIIXaygSV5NzwDg&sig=35pbVNGKn5HFRbu2qQZBz-0CeYg Google Print, p.73]</ref>{{Ref label|a|a|none}} (although the term is already present in [[Paul A. Baran|Paul Baran]]'s ''The Political Economy of Growth'' from 1957) to describe a type of a [[middle class]]<ref name="Haw"/> and [[upper class]]<ref name="sch">William Edwin Segall, ''School Reform in a Global Society', Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, {{ISBN|0-7425-2461-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uZkRjQCQaa4C&pg=PA146&dq=Lumpenbourgeoisie&as_brr=3&ei=lQEASM-BIIXaygSV5NzwDg&sig=Jb9AvvjstiT4Qr9MW0hrNcvSbVk Google Print p.146]</ref> (merchants, lawyers, industrialists, etc.);<ref name="Harr"/> one who  has little collective self-awareness or economic base<ref name="Haw"/> and who supports the colonial masters.<ref name="Haw"/><ref name="sch"/> The term is most often used in the context of Latin America.<ref name="Hos"/><ref name="Harr">David Harrison, ''The Sociology of Modernization and Development'', Routledge, 1988, {{ISBN|0-415-07870-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=APGrQPfGFg0C&pg=PA83&dq=Lumpenbourgeoisie&as_brr=3&ei=lQEASM-BIIXaygSV5NzwDg&sig=GXxbvqewn6vdQXLYBXs0AXzjAtM Google Print, p.83]</ref>
+== In Latin America in the 1970s ==
-Frank writing on the origins of the term<ref name="Hos"/> noted that he created this [[neologism]]<ref name="Haw"/> ''lumpenbourgeoisie'' from [[lumpenproletariat]] and bourgeoisie because, although the colonial and neocolonial elites in Latin America were similar to European bourgeoisie on many levels, they had one major difference. This difference was their mentality of the [[Marxist]] lumpenproletariat, the "refuse of all classes" (as described in Marx's ''[[The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon]]'') easy to manipulate to support the [[capitalism|capitalist]] system, often turning to [[crime]].<ref name="Hos"/> Similarly, the colonial elites would—although not involved in crime activities—hurt the local economy by aiding the foreign exploiters.<ref name="Hos"/><ref name="Preston">David Seth Preston, ''Contemporary Issues in Education'', Rodopi, 2005, {{ISBN|90-420-1684-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=h_o65nq6J6oC&pg=PA58&dq=Lumpenbourgeoisie&as_brr=3&ei=lQEASM-BIIXaygSV5NzwDg&sig=uGtsY6h8Ffcdcb2ErvcAkzazIrM Google Print, p.58]</ref> Foreign colonial powers want to acquire resources and goods found in the colonies, and they find this facilitated with incorporation of the local elites into the system, as they become intermediaries between the rich colonial buyers and the poor local producers.<ref name="Preston"/> The local elites become increasingly reliant on the system in which they supervise gathering of the [[surplus production]] from the colonies, taking their cut and before the remaining goods are sold abroad.<ref name="Preston"/> Frank termed this economic system ''lumpendevelopment''<ref name="Preston"/> and the countries affected by it, ''lumpenstates''.<ref name="Harr"/>
+The term is most often used in the context of Latin America.<ref name="Hos" /><ref name="Harr">David Harrison, ''The Sociology of Modernization and Development'', Routledge, 1988, {{ISBN|0-415-07870-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=APGrQPfGFg0C&dq=Lumpenbourgeoisie&pg=PA83 Google Print, p.83]</ref> Frank writing on the origins of the term<ref name="Hos" /> noted that he created this [[neologism]],<ref name="Haw" /> ''lumpenbourgeoisie'', from lumpenproletariat and bourgeoisie. But although the colonial and neocolonial elites in Latin America were similar to European bourgeoisie on many levels, noted Frank, they had one major difference. This difference was in the former's mentality akin to that of the [[Marxist]] lumpenproletariat, the "refuse of all classes" (as described in Marx's ''[[The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon]]'') who are easy to manipulate to support the [[capitalism|capitalist]] system, often turning to [[crime]].<ref name="Hos" /> The colonial elites would—although not involved in crime activities—hurt the local economy by aiding the foreign exploiters.<ref name="Hos" /><ref name="Preston">David Seth Preston, ''Contemporary Issues in Education'', Rodopi, 2005, {{ISBN|90-420-1684-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=h_o65nq6J6oC&dq=Lumpenbourgeoisie&pg=PA58 Google Print, p.58]</ref> Foreign colonial powers want to acquire resources and goods found in the colonies, and they find this facilitated through the incorporation of the local elites into the system, as these latter become intermediaries between the rich colonial buyers and the poor local producers.<ref name="Preston" /> The local elites then become increasingly reliant on the system in which they supervise the gathering of the [[surplus production]] from the colonies, taking their cut before the remaining goods are sold abroad.<ref name="Preston" /> Frank termed this economic system ''lumpendevelopment'' <ref name="Preston" /> and the countries affected by it ''lumpenstates''.<ref name="Harr" />
-==Prior usage==
+== Prior usage ==
+The term "lumpen-bourgeois" was used as early as 1906 by Bulgarian Marxist [[Dimitar Blagoev]] in his book "Contribution to the History of Socialism in Bulgaria".<ref>Благоевъ, Д., [https://books.google.com/books?id=ez4DAAAAMAAJ ''Приносъ къмъ историята на социализма въ България''], Sofia, Socialist Party Publishing House, 1906, pp. 70, 71, 73, 74, etc.</ref> In Austria, the term "Lumpenbourgeoisie" had already been used in 1920 by Hungarian communist [[Béla Kun]] (using the pen name Blasius Kolozsváry).<ref>Kolozsváry, B., [https://archive.org/details/vonrevolutionzur00kolo/page/45/mode/1up ''Von Revolution zu Revolution''], Wien, Genossenschaftsverlag der "Neuen Erde", 1920, p. 45, 47; the text was published also in Hungarian, [https://books.google.com/books?id=BoUZXtv31awC ''Forradalomról forradalomra'']</ref> It can also be found in numerous other Austrian and German socialist publications from the 1920s.<ref>https://www.google.com/search?q=Lumpenbourgeoisie&hl=en&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F1920%2Ccd_max%3A12%2F31%2F1929&tbm=bks {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref> Joseph L. Love wrote that the term is misattributed to Frank <ref>Joseph L. Love, ''Third World' a response to professor Worsley'', Third World Quarterly, Volume 2, Issue 2 April 1980, pages 315 – 317</ref> and was in fact coined by [[C. Wright Mills]] in ''White Collar: The American Middle Classes'' (1951).<ref>Mills, C. Wright,[https://archive.org/details/whitecollarameri00mill/mode/2up?q=lumpen ''White collar; the American middle classes'']; ''archive.org''</ref> However, in the [[1940s]], "lumpen bourgeoisie" – or "lumpen-bourgeoisie" – had already appeared in [[György Lukács|Lukács]]<ref>LUKÁCS, G. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/1943/humanism-barbarism/ch01.htm ''The Struggle of Humanism and Barbarism''. 1. Racial Theory: Enemy of Human Progress]. State Publishing House of the USSR, 1943. <br /> <u>Quote</u>: ''"The organs of white terror in the past reactionary coups were usually made up of mercenaries, of soldiery bribed and corrupted by fanatics, of the lumpen proletariat and the '''lumpen bourgeoisie'''."''</ref> and [[Arthur Koestler|Koestler]].<ref>KOESTLER, Arthur. [https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-intelligentsia/  The Intelligentsia (Autumn 1945)], in ''The Yogi and the Commissar and other Essays''.  <br /> <u>Quote</u>: ''"Thus the intelligentsia, once the vanguard of the ascending bourgeoisie, becomes the '''Lumpen-Bourgeoisie''' in the age of its decay."''</ref>
-The term Lumpenbourgeoisie was already used in Austria by about 1926. The author was an Austrian social democratic journalist and he used the term in at least one article in a Viennese periodical. Another example of the use of the term was given by Czech philosopher [[Karel Kosík]] in 1997. In his article, ''[http://www.sds.cz/docs/prectete/epubl/kko_lavd.htm Lumpenburžoazie a vyšší duchovní pravda]'' ("Lumpenbourgeoisie and the higher spiritual truth") he defines Lumpenbourgeoisie as "a militant, openly anti-democratic enclave within a functioning, however half-hearted and thus helpless democracy".
-"Lumpen-bourgeoisie" also occurs in E. Franklin Frazier's ''The Black Bourgoisie'' (1957), which was translated from the original French text that was published in 1955. He uses it to describe African American businessmen who cling to what he terms the "myth of Negro business" to affect meaningful change in racial politics (173).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frazier|first1=E. Franklin|title=Black Bourgeoisie|date=1957|publisher=The Free Press|location=New York|page=173}}</ref> He was especially focused on the development of black-owned business that developed and expanded in both the U.S. South and North during the first decades of the 20th century.
+In ''The Black Bourgeoisie'' (1957), which was translated from the original French text that was published in 1955, [[E. Franklin Frazier]] uses the term to describe African-American businessmen who cling to what he terms the "myth of Negro business" to affect meaningful change in racial politics.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frazier|first1=E. Franklin|url=https://archive.org/details/blackbourgeoisie0000fraz|title=Black Bourgeoisie|date=1957|publisher=The Free Press|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/blackbourgeoisie0000fraz/page/173 173]|url-access=registration}}</ref> He was especially focused on the development of black-owned business that developed and expanded in both the U.S. South and North during the first decades of the 20th century.
-==See also==
+== Later usage ==
+An example of usage of the term after Frank is that by Czech philosopher [[Karel Kosík]] in 1997. In his article, ''[http://www.sds.cz/docs/prectete/epubl/kko_lavd.htm Lumpenburžoazie a vyšší duchovní pravda]'' ("Lumpenbourgeoisie and the higher spiritual truth"), Kosik defines "the lumpenbourgeoisie" as "a militant, openly anti-democratic enclave within a functioning, however half-hearted and thus helpless democracy".
+== See also ==
 * [[Comprador]]
 * [[Dependency theory]]
 * [[Kleptocracy]]
+* [[Petite bourgeoisie]]
+* [[Professional–managerial class]]
+* [[Lumpenproletariat]]
+* [[Labor aristocracy]]
-==Notes==
+== References ==
-{{Note label|a|a|none}} '''a''' Joseph L. Love wrote that the term is misattributed to Frank and was in fact coined by [[C. Wright Mills]] in ''White Collar'' (1956).<ref>Joseph L. Love, ''Third World' a response to professor Worsley'', Third World Quarterly, Volume 2, Issue 2 April 1980 , pages 315 - 317, [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a785826553~db=all]</ref> Nonetheless, the term was popularized by Frank's book ''Lumpenbourgeoisie and Lumpendevelopment: Dependency, Class and Politics in Latin America'' (1972) which used it in its title.
-==References==
 {{Reflist}}
-==Further reading==
+== Further reading ==
-* Andre Gunther Frank, ''Lumpenbourgeoisie and Lumpendevelopment: Dependency, Class and Politics in Latin America'', 1972
+* Frank, Andre Gunder. ''Lumpenbourgeoisie and Lumpendevelopment: Dependency, Class and Politics in Latin America'', 1972
+[[Category:1950s neologisms]]
 [[Category:Neocolonialism]]
 [[Category:Social classes]]
-[[Category:Social groups]]
 [[Category:Communist terminology]]
+[[Category:Bourgeoisie]]
+[[Category:Imperialism studies]]
+[[Category:Marxist terminology]]