Rural Social Structure

Abstract

In a century which has become acutely conscious of the phenomenon of peasant rebellion, it sometimes comes as a surprise that Marx and many classical Marxists viewed the peasantry as a conservative force in politics. In his analysis of Bonapartism in France, Marx argued that the individualism of the petty-proprietor peasantry prevented it from coalescing as a class with a clear class consciousness. Just as potatoes in a sack would always be nothing more than a sack of potatoes, the individual form of production would keep the peasants isolated from one another and would predispose them to follow authoritarian leaders such as Bonaparte (Marx, 1967).