Capital Accumulation and the Rise of the New Middle Class

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Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present an historical analysis of the ex pansion of the new middle class in the United States since the beginning of the 20th century. In opposition to conventional accounts which interpret the growth of professional and managerial occupations primarily as a consequence of technological changes associated with the process of industrialization, I argue that changes in the class structure must be viewed as a structurally determined consequence of the inherent contradictions of capitalist society, of the process of class conflict itself, and the adaptive mechanisms which have emerged in response to these. The expansion of the new middle class is analyzed in relation to the his torical development of the capital accumulation process and each of its three principal contradictions: (1) the tendency toward a decline in the rate of profit, (2) the intensification of class antagonism, and (3) problems in the realization of surplus-value. The application of this model to the present period suggests that we are entering into a period of diminishing growth and may even be approach ing the upper limits to the size of the new middle class. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible political consequences of this relative stabilization of class boundaries.

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