This article draws on Pierre Bourdieu's rethinking of social class to investigate the connection between class and politics in contemporary society.
We introduce a new class scheme that incorporates an often neglected hallmark of Bourdieu's approach, namely the distinction between class fractions based on the preponderance of economic or cultural capital possessed. By relating our two-dimensional concept of class to a two-dimensional political space, we will show that the relationship between class and politics is homological – the systems of class divisions and political divisions exhibit a corresponding structure.
The hierarchical dimension of class is associated with the divide between liberal and anti-liberal views on what is sometimes dubbed ‘new’ politics, whereas the capital composition dimension is connected with the classical left vs. right divide in terms of issues of redistribution, social spending and government interventions in the economy.
We conclude by discussing whether political attitudes should be seen as a form of taste and as such on par with cultural tastes.
