What does «sociedad de masas» mean in Spanish?
- Society in which prosperity and bureaucracy have weakened traditional social ties. The description of society as a "mass" took shape in the 19th century, referring to the leveling trends in the period of the Industrial Revolution that undermined traditional, aristocratic values. In the work of early 19th century political theorists such as Alexis de Tocqueville, the term was used in discussions of elite concerns about a change in the body politic of the Western world pronounced since the French Revolution. These elite concerns centered largely on the "tyranny of the majority" or mob rule.