Born into a middle-class, socialist family in Madrid, he has the smooth-shaven look of a rising young executive, a far cry from his elderly, bearded predecessor Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.
The lack of outlets for popular dissent and reform was especially damaging given the cleavages that continued to plague Germany after unification: Protestant North versus Catholic South, agriculture versus industry, Prussia versus the other states, Junkers versus middle-class liberals, industrialists versus the (increasingly socialist) working class.
They wanted to reform rather than abolish capitalism, and their agent of reform was not the socialist working class, but the loosely conceived idea of "the people".
He also argues that professionals such as lawyers, teachers and doctors should be able to moonlight from their state jobs in private consultancies, consolidating a "socialist middle class" that pushes for further reform.
At the other end of the scale were these two dears, who probably run a "Dog Cafe" in Brighton or a Socialist pottery class.
The U.S. economy is a larger share of GDP, the U.S. military advantage is qualitatively greater than anything Britain ever enjoyed, and none of its political problems are as polarizing as the Irish question or the rise of a socialist working class party were for the U.K. in 1914.
As a socialist, middle-class aspirations now seemed decidedly unambitious.
He is not a socialist working-class hero, but an English Democrat, ex-teacher.
But one of the most important, without a doubt, was the extermination of the leadership of the socialist working-class.
South Africa's Star newspaper says retirement will allow Sir Alex to indulge his "varied interests outside the sport" particularly horse-racing - a pursuit the paper says appears at odds with his socialist, working-class background.
