Class Structures in Postwar Europe
Rapid economic growth went a long way toward creating a new society in Europe after the Second World War. European society became more mobile and more democratic. Old class barriers relaxed, and class distinctions became fuzzier.
Changes in the structure of the middle class were particularly influential in the general drift toward a less rigid class structure. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the model for the middle class had been the independent, self-employed individual who owned a business or practiced a liberal profession such as law or medicine. Ownership of property- -very often inherited property- -and strong family ties had often been the keys to wealth and standing within the middle class. After 1945 this pattern declined drastically in Western Europe. A new breed of managers and experts replaced traditional property owners as the leaders of the middle class. Ability to serve the needs of a big organization largely replaced inherited property and family connections in determining an individual’s social position in the middle and upper-middle classes. At the same time, the middle class grew massively and became harder to define.
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