ABSTRACT
The new working class never had a chance to fit itself smoothly into societies as they became industrialized but were still dominated by aristocratic institutions and values that served to maintain the old class divisions. In our context, it is crucial to note that the growth of class consciousness among workers, whether produced by or producing socialist parties, was a response to aristocratic thought and institutions still prevalent in society. To the extent that the feeling was shared by workers, it contributed to the class consciousness. It certainly could not merge, socially or politically, with one of the old classes. On the contrary, threatened by industrialization with the loss of the independence and with descent into the industrial working class, they clung desperately to what distinguished them from the workers, their small property and their status as property owners. According to it, socialist parties are a consequence of there being a working class.
