look at gradational, categorical, and relational approaches to the
study of social class and examine the usefulness of these ap-
proaches for studies of political ideology and class formation. I
examine the data and methods appropriate for the three approaches
to class analysis.

Chapter 2 defines key concepts used throughout the study and
identifies five contending theoretical positions on the class loca-
tion and political ideology of knowledge controllers, managers,
and semiprofessionals. Along with chapter 1, it presents the main
contending theoretical approaches to the study of the middle class.
Chapter 3 explains the construction of the variables used in subse-
quent chapters of the book.

Chapters 4 and 5 use these variables for an empirical examina-
tion of the five theories of the middle class that are identified in
chapter 2. These chapters are particularly useful for scholars who
are interested in debates within Marxist and Weberian class anal-
ysis regarding the class location, composition, and political ideol-
ogy of knowledge controllers and other middle-class strata.

In the final chapters I use the political--ideological variables to
develop an analysis of cleavages within classes and the potential
for political--ideological coalitions among classes. Chapter 6 pre-
sents a comparative analysis of class formation and the shape of
political--ideological coalitions in the United States and Sweden.
I suggest that the viability of class theories are contingent, depend-
ing on the national and cultural context in which they are applied.

Chapter 7 asks whether other dimensions of stratification--
namely race and gender--are equally salient indicators of politi-
cal-ideological cleavage and coalition. Recent studies of class,
race, and gender present a challenge to the class analysis attempted
here. Does the analysis of race and gender compete with or
complement class analysis? Does the inclusion of race and gender
enhance the explanatory power of class analysis or does it under-
mine the contention that economic relations most fundamentally
structure social life? I show that class position and political ideol-
ogy cannot be separated from the context of capitalist societies that

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