Abstract

Although widely present in the work of Marx and in Marxist writings, the concept of ruling class has never been fully clarified as to its meaning and implications. This essay thus seeks to point out some of the problems this concept entails, which have also emerged in the prolonged Marxist debate around it. After examining the way Marx and Engels depict the relation between the ruling class and the State, the main developments of the concept of ruling class in Marxist thought are analyzed. The article begins by a discussion of Ralph Miliband’s perspective. It then examines the proposals for a transformation of the Marxist concept of ruling class advanced by Jacques Bidet, Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy. After a brief comparison between the Marxist theses and Michael Mann’s theory of power, the article goes on to discuss the way in which the relation between ruling class and political institutions is transformed in the neo-liberalist era : the emergence of a global statuality, lacking in democratic legitimization, constitutes a fertile terrain for the coming to power of a transnational capitalist class, which controls political decisions in a much more direct way than in the traditional nation-state.