Class Formation without Class Struggle: An Elite Conflict Theory of the Transition to Capitalism

An elite conflict model is compared to past work on elites and to a variety of Marxist explanations for the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Elites are defined by their control over organizational apparatuses for appropriating resources from non-elites. An elite in pursuit of its interests is constrained primarily by coexisting elites and secondarily by inter-class relations of production. The effects of elite and class conflict upon elite organizations and relations of production are traced. Conflict among feudal elites is identified as the primary determinant of the form and extent of social structural change in three historical cases: Florence during the Renaissance, England in the century leading up to the 1640 Revolution, and France from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.