About middle class theory: history and modern times

The article analyses the problem of the middle class that had been denoted in the works of Aristotle as far back as in ancient society and that was of interest to social thinkers during the Renaissance and Modern Age periods. At present this issue has been actively discussed both in foreign and in the Russian press. The authors of the article show the reasons for frequent contradictions between the assessments concerning the size of the middle class in Russian society (including the Vologda Oblast) and the prospect for the increase in the share of middle stratum

Keywords

standard of living, modernization, middle class, stratification, differentiation, status, self-identification, estrangement