Definition of estate society

Is named estate society to the one who is organized in estates. An estate is the stratum of a society that is defined from a style of life in common or for the same social function.

In the Old Regime, as the system of government that dominated before French Revolution, the estates constituted very closed groups that could be accessed mainly through birth. Although there was a minimal possibility of transfer from one estate to another, either by purchase or by achievement of some merit, estamental society was characterized especially by its inertia and stability.

Compared with the capitalist society that became later, which is divided into groups based on wealth that each one has, so it is more variable and dynamic, the class, as we said, remains practically immutable.

In estate society, each estate corresponded to a stratum or group defined by a common lifestyle and social function.

Meanwhile, with regard to the legal situation that prevailed therein, it is correct to speak of

inequality, because each one of the people who composed it could be the bearer or not of privileges depending on the stratum to which they belonged. The most common privileges consisted of tax exemption and the possibility of accessing commercial advantages. The most privileged class was that which included the clergy and nobility and therefore the one who could get the mentioned exemptions, while the underprivileged who stayed outside of them were made up of the bourgeois, artisans, peasants and the most marginalized people.

Class mobility, that is, being able to move from the underprivileged to the privileged class, was only possible because of birth or by a special concession of the monarch on duty. From the seventeenth century it began to become more common for the bourgeoisie to become part of the most privileged class of society through the purchase of titles to the monarchs.

The different changes that began to take shape and materialize throughout the 18th century led to the strengthening of the bourgeoisie and as their opulence increased, they would obtain political and social rights that until then were typical of the nobility and the clergy, as we mentioned. The pressure of the bourgeoisie became the Revolution French and after this the Estamental Society passed into memory.

Topics in Estate Society