ABSTRACT
Critical political opinions within the middle class are still popularly regarded as a somewhat peculiar, even inexplicable, phenomenon. It seems, perhaps, somewhat perverse that anti-status quo, even revolutionary, ideas and ideals should be espoused by people who, far from being amongst society'S poorest or most oppressed, form one of its more privileged groups. In his book on the social bases of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Frank Parkin (1968: 17) concluded,
It may be taken as axiomatic that the middle classes are on the whole more closely integrated into society and its major values and institutions than are lower status groups .... Middle class status with all that it implies in the way of material security, favourable home and work environment, high access to valued cultural and welfare resources, and a general ability to control personal environment and life-chances, makes for an overall personality and social type altogether unlike that posited for alienated man.
