p The opening lines of the Communist Manifesto describe the confusion caused on the political scene in Europe by the stalking spectre of communism. Men began to talk about a new force that was about to take up the independent position assigned to it by history. There was alarm in the ranks of the feudal-absolutist reaction and bourgeois liberalism, for they were faced with the common adversary. Just recently, the political arena had appeared to belong to no one but themselves.

Even in the early 19th century there was growing realisation among the capitalists and landowners that a new social force had arisen. This was clearly indicated by the struggle of the weavers of Lyon in France and the Chartist movement in Britain. This new force was called the fourth estate by some, and the proletariat by others. As the working class developed its own political organisation and ideology prerequisites appeared for a radical change in social life. What was the state of bourgeois social thought as it faced these historical changes?