Leftypedia has been restored! See our announcement.
Bourgeois revolution
A bourgeois revolution, or bourgeois democratic revolution, is a term used by Marxists to denote a social revolution carried out by the bourgeoisie to overthrow the feudal mode of production and realize the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and capitalism.
"The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.
The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation." —Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Ch. I, "Bourgeois and Proletarians"