Potencial Exams Questions

9- Explain the characteristics of the CLASS-BASED SOCIETY as opposite to the ESTATES SYSTEM.

Class-based society is divided into three groups: the Upper Class, the Middle Class and the Working Class while the Estates System was divided into three estates, which were: the First Estate (the nobility), the Second State (the clergy) and the Third Estate  (peasants, artisans and merchants). In the class-based society, people could change easily their social status because it was determined by their personal wealth, and not by their family background, as in the Estates System. In the class-based society all citizen were equal under the law, and in the estates systems the first and second estates had privileges. In the 19th century people fought for the universal male suffrage. In both social systems, there were great economic inequalities.

Lucía Rodríguez Martínez, 4ºD.