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The concept of social class in Italy began early on in Ancient Rome, and continued into what became the Italian states until the 1861 unification. Today, there are differences between income and profession which do position people into different social levels, i.e. the bourgeoisie, the working class and the rural class. The definitions, sizes and types of social strata in the nation have changed, especially since World War II, where the agricultural workforce has decreased, with the 'peasantry' said to have disappeared, the industrial working class decreasing in prominence since the 1970s, and the middle class undergoing several changes. Throughout the 1970s until the latter-half of the decade, various discussions and debates were led out on social class in the country. Italy is still characterised by wealth and affluence inequality as well as poverty, especially with regards to the North-South divide; nevertheless, being a developed country with welfare provisions, the worst levels of poverty never tend to be too extreme.

Ancient Rome
Roman society is largely viewed as hierarchical, with slaves (servi) at the bottom, freedmen (liberti) above them, and free-born citizens (cives) at the top. Free citizens were themselves also divided by class. The broadest, and earliest, division was between the patricians, who could trace their ancestry to one of the 100 Patriarchs at the founding of the city, and the plebeians, who could not. This became less important in the later Republic, as some plebeian families became wealthy and entered politics, and some patrician families fell on hard times. Anyone, patrician or plebeian, who could count a consul as his ancestor was a noble (nobilis); a man who was the first of his family to hold the consulship, such as Marius or Cicero, was known as a novus homo ("new man") and ennobled his descendants. Patrician ancestry, however, still conferred considerable prestige, and many religious offices remained restricted to patricians.

A class division originally based on military service became more important. Membership of these classes was determined periodically by the Censors, according to property. The wealthiest were the Senatorial class, who dominated politics and command of the army. Next came the equestrians (equites, sometimes translated "knights"), originally those who could afford a warhorse, who formed a powerful mercantile class. Several further classes, originally based on what military equipment their members could afford, followed, with the proletarii, citizens who had no property at all, at the bottom. Before the reforms of Marius they were ineligible for military service and are often described as being just barely above freed slaves in terms of wealth and prestige.

Voting power in the Republic was dependent on class. Citizens were enrolled in voting "tribes", but the tribes of the richer classes had fewer members than the poorer ones, all the proletarii being enrolled in a single tribe. Voting was done in class order and stopped as soon as a majority of the tribes had been reached, so the poorer classes were often unable even to cast their votes.

Allied foreign cities were often given the Latin Right, an intermediary level between full citizens and foreigners (peregrini), which gave their citizens rights under Roman law and allowed their leading magistrates to become full Roman citizens. While there were varying degrees of Latin rights, the main division was between those cum suffragio ("with vote"; enrolled in a Roman tribe and able to take part in the comitia tributa) and sine suffragio ("without vote"; unable to take part in Roman politics). Some of Rome's Italian allies were given full citizenship after the Social War of 91–88 BC, and full Roman citizenship was extended to all free-born men in the Empire by Caracalla in 212. Women shared some basic rights with their male counterparts, but were not fully regarded as citizens and were thus not allowed to vote or participate in politics.

Pre-World War II
There were differences in social class during the Kingdom of Italy and before the war. In 1881, the working class stood at 1.9%, going down to 1.7% by 1921, while the urban middle class saw a decrease from 23.4% in 1881 to 16.3% in 1921. "Small farmers" occupied 22.5% in 1881, going up to 37% in 1921, while the working class took up 52.2%, going down to 45%. In Southern Italy, the "social equilibrium" was based on a backward economic style and agrarian contracts. There was a large and powerful landlord class in these areas.

Post-World War II
Ever since World War II, one can observe various changes to Italian society. Statistically, the bourgeois class structure has remained more or less the same from 1881 until 1951 (staying at 1.9% until a 0.2% drop in 1921), yet figures started to go up after the 1950s until they reached 3.3% in 1983. the "Urban middle class" has changed radically since 1951, going from 26.5% to 46.4%, and especially with regards to the "private sector white collar", which went up by 5% from 5.2% to 10% in the 1980s; nevertheless, shop owners and artisans in the 1983 occupied less of the population, down to 5.8% since 1951’s 6%. "Small farmers" have decreased from 30.2% in 1951 to 7.6% in 1983, whilst the working class has also gone up from 41.2% to 42.7%, with a decrease in the "Farm labourers" section and increases in the "Industrial workers" and "Trade, transport, services" section. After World War II, social changes were prominent especially in the South, where the class system changed rapidly from one of different "barons" of power centred on a class of landowners, to one which was less influenced by such people. True mass-scale urban migration commenced, and new urban patterns too – as the aristocratic and landowning classes fell, a new trend of urbanisation began, often at the hand of the same stratum of landlords, where Southern cities saw the mass-scale construction of new buildings. Nevertheless, matters were slightly different in the North, considering the area had already been industrialised in past periods. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the major centres of the industrial triangle (compromising Milan, Turin and Genoa) saw the arrival of emigrants from the South many of whom worked in industry. The "industrial bourgeoisie” of the North was ruled by major heads of large companies, despite being generally uneven and not uniform from an internal point of view. As industry played an important role, the industrially-occupied classes were made stronger, seeing a decrease in the agricultural classes. The workforce employed in industry nevertheless augmented modestly in the country overall. In the ensuing decades, a form of "state bourgeoisie" also evolved, despite its beginning under the Fascist rule of the nation. By the arrival of the 1970s decade, social classes were subjected to a debate, which was said to have ended towards the latter-end of the decade; one of the decade’s major changes was the growth of the "Third Italy", in which social scientists decided to observe economic development's geography over the link between the social strata and development. By the 1980s, the country saw an increase in the number of a "white-collar lower middle class".

Contemporary period
Up until the 1970s, the industrial working class contracted with regards to importance, size and influence, after its previous growth. Since then 1970s, several ideas and formations with regards to social class have been consolidated. Henri Mendras, in his 1992 book La fin des paysans, used the phrase "the end of the peasantry", which, within an Italian context, can be seen from the decline of the agricultural labour force from 9 million in the 1940s to less than a million today. As of recent times, there have been different trends regarding the distribution of wealth, professions and poverty, which can be seen through statistics. Italy still suffers, despite its developed status, from poverty, with 11.8% of the population in 1998 (7.423 million people, and 2.558 million families) living in such conditions, a decrease from the high levels of the 1980s (when it was 14%). Through such statistics, one can still view a North-South divide factor, as 65% of poor families originate from Southern Italy. Those of an elderly age living on state pensions are estimated to take up 53% of poor households, despite their numbers are falling in favour or those who are not on pensions and work. The level of social and economic mobility varies based on different factors, including profession, age and gender. In 1998, the level of mobility was higher for women than for men (64.9% for the former, and 60.3% for the latter). With 91.1%, the rural class has the highest mobility of all, whilst the lowest is for the bourgeoisie in general and the working class. The overall level of mobility in intra-generational terms has been defined as 30.3%.

Social hierarchy
Italy’s social hierarchy according to the Italian Institute of Statistics:
 * 1. Bourgeoisie (10% of the working population) includes high-class entrepreneurs, managers, politicians, self-employed people, etc.


 * 2. White-collar middle class (17% of the working population) includes middle class workers not employed in manual work.


 * 3. Urban petit bourgeosie (14% of the working population) is mainly made up of shopkeepers, small-business entrepreneurs, self-employed artisians etc.


 * 4. Rural petit bourgeosie (10% of the working population) consists of small entrepreneurs or estate owners who operate in the countryside, mainly in agriculture and forestry.


 * 5. Urban working class (37% of the working population) refers to the people employed in manual work.


 * 6. Rural working class (9% of the working population) consists of people operating in the primary industry, such as farmers, loggers, fishermen etc.