ABSTRACT
In late capitalism there is some ideological incorporation of the working class, though less than has recently been believed, and the mechanisms of transmission are well developed and partly effective. There are problems of defining the dominant ideology and supporting this definition with solid evidence which are inevitable in the present state of knowledge. Some recent discussions of working-class culture have questioned the view that it is irremediably permeated by a bourgeois culture that expresses the dominant ideology. The most obvious is that reformism has produced real, tangible benefits for the working class, with the result that, for many, it no longer appears necessary that existing institutions, including capitalism, should be destroyed. Hence in comparison with early capitalism, the trade union organisation of the contemporary economy and the liberal democratic political system which gives citizenship rights to all in late capitalism, have already increased the influence of the organised working class on the dominant class.
