Article about Class in Tonga

James, Kerry. 1943. Is there a Tongan middle class? Hierarchy and protest in contemporary Tonga. The Contemporary Pacific, 15 (2),  309-336.


This article concludes that there is no coherent, durable middle class in Tonga capable of the effective class action he claimed for it. Instead, the social struggles of recent decades, typically led by members of commoner educated elites, may be seen as protests against the traditional patriarchal hierarchy and especially what they perceive to be the actions of an arrogant, paternalistic government. Rather than issues theoretically associated with class, the struggles have involved commoners' claims to respect from socially superior leaders and recognition of the covenant-like relationship that ideally should exist between them within the body politic.