THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS AND DEMOCRACY IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS AND DEMOCRACY IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Also by Ronald M. Glassman THE MIDDLE CLASS AND DEMOCRACY IN SOCIO-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE FOR DEMOCRACY: The Noble Character and Tragic Flaws of the Middle Class {with William Swatos, Jr. and Peter Kivisto) CHINA IN TRANSITION: Communism, Capitalism, Democracy THE RENASCENCE OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY {edited with Henry Etzkowitz) A DEMOCRACY AGENDA FOR THE YEAR 2000 {with Mark Green) DEMOCRACY AND EQUALITY BUREAUCRACY AGAINST DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM {edited with Paul Rosen and William Swatos, Jr.) CHARISMA, HISTORY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE {edited with William Swatos, Jr.) DEMOCRACY AND DESPOTISM IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY: A Neo- Weberian Approach to Political Analysis A WEBER-MARX DIALOGUE {edited with Robert J. Antonio) MAX WEBER'S POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY: A Pessimistic Vision of a Rationalized World {edited with Vatro Murvar) CONFLICT AND CONTROL: The Challenge to Legitimacy of Modern Governments {edited with Arthur J. Vidick) THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA

The New Middle Class and Democracy in Global Perspective Ronald M. Glassman Professor of Sociology William Pater son College of New Jersey Wayne New Jersey &

AS First published in Great Britain 1997 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-333-68305-6 AS First published in the United States of America 1997 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 0-312-17421-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Glassman, Ronald M. The new middle class and democracy in global perspective / Ronald M. Glassman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-312-17421-7 (cloth) 1. Democracy. 2. Middle class. 3. Capitalism. 4. High technology Social aspects. 5. Bureaucracy. I. Title. JC423.G58 1997 321.8'09'049 dc21 96-46503 CIP Ronald M. Glassman 1997 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire

Contents Introduction: Industrial Capitalism and Legal-Representative Democracy: The End of History? 1 Part I Legal-Representative Democracy on a High-Technology Industrial Capitalist Base 15 1 High-Technology Industrial Capitalism as a New Mode of Production 17 2 Three Models of High-Technology Industrial Capitalism 31 3 The New Class Structure Engendered by the High-Technology Economy, the Bureaucratic State and the Service Sector 72 Part II The Polis Analogy: The Democratic Potentialities of the New Middle Class 103 4 The New Middle Class as an Aristotelian Base for Democracy 105 5 The New Middle Class and Law 124 6 Maintaining the Middle-Class Majority on the High-Technology Industrial Capitalist Base 142 Part III The Empire Analogy: Bureaucracy against Democracy 163 7 Bureaucracy as a Despotic System of Domination 165 8 Does the Empire Analogy Hold, or are Critical Differences Emerging? 177 9 Political Culture against Democracy 193 Part IV Participation, Power Limitation, Law and Democracy in Technocratic-Bureaucratic Society 219 Participation, Limitation and Law in Mass Technocratic-Bureaucratic Society 221 10 The Extension of Legal Authority over Public and Private Bureaucracies 222 v

VI Contents 11 Mass-Mediated Direct Democracy: Television Town Meetings and Computer Referenda - Civil Society Through a Lens 231 12 Education for Democracy in the High-Technology Global Village 255 Notes 262 Index 276