About: Oppressors–oppressed distinction

Oppressors–oppressed distinction or dominant–dominated opposition is a political concept. One of the first theorists to use it was Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who wrote in his 1802 The German Constitution: "The Catholics had been in the position of oppressors, and the Protestants of the oppressed." Karl Marx made the concept very influential, and it is often considered a fundamental element of Marxist analysis. Some have judged it simplistic. Many authors have adapted it to other contexts, including Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Antonio Gramsci, Simone Weil, Paulo Freire, and others. It has been used in a variety of contexts, including discussions of the bourgeoisie and proletariat, imperialism, and self-determination.