Enter Gouldner: The New Class Project in the Trumpian Vortex

In his work on intellectuals and the New Class at the end of his life, Alvin Gouldner (1979) offered a bold reinterpretation of classical theories about the educated middle classes, or “New Class.” In the stress test currently being imposed on democratic institutions by the second Trump Administration, major sectors of this group have come under attack. Although the concept of the New Class and the older theories associated with it have fallen out of favor, important elements of Gouldner’s synthesis deserve a revisit in this moment. In particular, theoretical and empirical developments since his death in 1980 enable a broader model of the “classness” of the New Class that expands upon Gouldner’s formulation. These include meritocracy, globalization, the rise of the “risk society,” and the revival of theories of occupational closure. The threats posed by authoritarian populism may compel broad sectors of the New Class to act together in defense of their interests and values for the first time, generating a new type of social conflict in the United States.