Artículo



Dados vol. 34 n. 3 Rio de Janeiro 1991

O Conceito de Casses Sociais e a Lógica da Ação Coletiva

Reis, Bruno Pinheiro W.

Resumen

The article holds that in demonstrating the indetermination of the political behavior of members of a social class Olson's formulation of the logic of collective action seriously challenges the Marxist theory of social classes, since it hinders any conclusive affirmation concerning the inevitability of the proletarian revolution. Contributions to this topic by authors such as G. A. Cohen, John Roemer, Jon Elster, and Adam Przeworski are examined and an effort is made to ascertain to what extent each leans toward a view of the concept of social class that is either "objectivist" (emphasis on class "in itself") or "subjectivist" (emphasis on class "for itself"). ln concluding, the article recognizes the ineluctability of the indetermination of class member's political behavior and rebuffs attempts (especially Przeworski's) to circumvent the problem by means of redefinitions of the concept of social class that reduce the causal link between class and conflict to a tautological circularity. The concept of social class nonetheless remains relevant in sociological analysis (in terms that are quite dose, if not identical, to Max Weber's formulation on the topic) as a frequent, albeit not necessary, basis of communal action.

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O Conceito de Casses Sociais e a Lógica da Ação Coletiva