The word "Bourgeois" is an annoyingly French version of "Burgher".
With that translation in mind, it's easier to understand what group of
people the word referred to when it became politically charged.
"Burgher" means "Freeman of a Burgh". Typically they are one of the
social and economic leaders of The City. They have sensibilities
suited to a middle-class administrative-type person who lives in the
center city, whose goal is order and profit, who may distrust the central government but ultimately trusts the government more than they trust the workers under their control. They are your boss, perhaps, but more likely they are higher in the company management.
When Communists started to apply the French term "Bourgeois" to
middle-class attitudes in general, it was 1883 and the shape of the
world had changed such that cities no longer needed walls, and as the
cities became unbound so did the word "Bourgeois", moving from a
specific geographic context into a more widespread, more abstract
judgment of middle-class ideals. That was when it became a description,
as opposed to referring to specific people. It went from meaning
"Burgher" to "BurgherISM".
"Burgher" is a word more grounded in
the life of a city, and I prefer it for that reason. And yet...the cities themselves are un-grounded these days. The walls of trade protections are long gone, the difficulties of distance are resolved, the middle-class people defend their turf using the police instead of walls. Our cities, our economies have become as thinly spread over the earth as the concept of the Bourgeoisie. The economic aristocrats have eroded the idea that any one place can actually have Burghers. So we have Burgherism, but un-moored from its origins.