Proletariat – Meaning and Explanation

The term proletariat refers to those people who are wage-earners in a capitalist society and their sole possession is their ability to work.

An individual belonging to this class is often referred to as proletarian. As per the Marxism theory, if the dictatorship of the proletariat prevails which is for the proletariat, by the proletariat and of the proletariat then it will lead to their self-abolishment and will end up in communism.

In the Roman Republic, the proletariat belongs to the social class having negligible property. The origin of their name can be traced down to the census conducted by the Romans every five years to acknowledge the number of their citizens and to know the property they hold which also determined their military duties and voting rights which is given to them then. The ones whose property vales 11,000 or less which was assumed to be below the lowest census for military services, their children were counted in place of their property and they were often categorized under the term “proletarius”  which means the one who produces offspring. Their only contribution was raising their children and in that way increasing the Roman citizens who then expanded the Roman society by taking over new territories. A few Romans were only classified for their existence or living individuals who could not contribute to the Roman Empire as they had no significant property of their own which could be counted during the census and therefore they were listed under the term “capite censi”. The proletarii who had less than the minimum property required were often deprived of voting rights.

The late Roman historian such as Livy without uncertainty considered the Comitia Centuriata as important as they formed one of the three forms of a popular assembly of Rome, were given voting units whose members stood for a class of citizens as per the value of their property.

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