What neither foresaw was the possibility of a Tony Blair: a politician who was not a socialist, and who despised class politics, but who nonetheless found a way to lead the Labour Party without breaking it apart.
At stake are two political traditions: the old, working-class machine politics personified by Mr Martinez, and a middle-class reformist trend represented by Dade County's mayor, Alex Penelas.
An initial version of the law presented to the parliament, known as the General National Congress, would have been an entire ruling class from politics, even figures who had minor posts or left the government decades before the uprising against Gadhafi began in early 2011.
It's not uncommon for students to take a politics class in Mandarin or history in Arabic.
Class matters in politics - it can cut both ways, but it cannot be ignored.
So what is it about the middle class that influences politics?
Traditional parties have weakened with the decline of class-based politics.
But Soviet diplomats were shy to report on America's bounding prosperity, its expanding middle-class largely disinterested in politics.
What I want is to change the whole darn way we define political success in America and thereby draw a better class of person to politics.
Traditionally, class figured less in politics in America than in most other Western countries, supposedly because the United States, though more economically unequal, and rougher in tone, was more socially equal, more diverse, more democratic, and better at giving ordinary people the opportunity to rise.
Weak parties also reflect a welcome decline in class conflict in British politics: at the last election the Tories, once recognised as the party of the establishment, made their biggest gains among poorer voters while suffering among the more affluent and educated, who used to be their main supporters.
Where e-democracy may make a difference is in places where the middle class has become largely disengaged from politics.
His failure badly undermined the credibility of the upper class that was dominating not just politics in Britain, but many other aspects of public life as well, including the media.
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White working-class voters are the quicksilver of American politics: they are hard to catch and hard to hold.
It was suited for great set-piece debates, in eras when politics took place across gaping class and ideological divides.
His influence on American culture ranged from philanthropy and politics to establishing a world class art collection and a commitment to green technology.
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My class is actually called Tax Policy and Politics, and much of the discussion is about the conflict between the two: good policy is often bad politics, and vice versa.
The average wealth and education of voters in the Defence area meant that NA-250 was the place where PTI, which appeals to middle-class and upper-middle-class voters fed up with traditional patronage politics, stood its best chance of winning a seat in Karachi, the country's economic capital.
Middle class families cannot be held hostage by partisan politics, obstruction in Washington.
In middle class Levittown, residents call for post-election politics to end divisiveness and heal the country.
In another country you could flee easy categorisation by your education, your work, your class, your family, your accent, your politics.
Rudolph Giuliani, they argue, has taken the sting out of New York's racial politics, and the growing black middle class is supporting younger managerial black politicians, not racial ambulance-chasers.
When she bares her arms for a gym class with schoolchildren, she makes headlines on the politics page and the style section, inspiring Americans to hit the floor for push-ups and reconsider sheaths under cardigans.
The cultural politics of race in America are always refracted through class.
And yet as the whole Andrew Mitchell "plebgate" saga has shown, class is never far away - particularly when it comes to politics.
Mr Clinton's big idea for the Democrats was to move from the left into the centre of politics, concentrate on the aspirations of the middle class, and cast off ties to special interests, especially trade unions.
Although the U.S State Department subsequently implemented a special immigrant visa program for Iraqi and Afghan translators and interpreters, the creation of this class of refugees is a testament to the power of language politics, and an example of the fallout from American insufficiencies in this area.
It is from this class the opposition has come to the modern world based on identity politics.
"The young still see parties as white, middle class institutions led by middle aged men, " he tells the Politics Show for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
BBC: NEWS | Programmes | Politics Show | Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: Street Politics
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