A situation of institutionalized inequality is known as social stratification, and the current structure of social ties makes it difficult for people to acquire resources.
Institutionalizing inequality refers to the establishment of a hierarchy inside a society, where individuals in particular positions have the right to demand a higher proportion of commodities and services (McLeod, 2013 pp. 233). Although the majority of people in the society may reject the disparity, it is typically considered as the normal way of doing things. Rules that specify how rewards are given to individuals and groups are also present in a socially stratified society.
Categorization and Definition of Class
An industrial or capitalist society such as the United States uses class as a measure of stratification. Such a society categorizes individuals in class divisions, which are a significant determinant of social mobility. Class divisions follow an occupational structure, authority structure, and property structure. The occupational structure of class divisions categorizes people based on the position they hold in the society. The authority structure categorizes people based on the number of people they can give orders and how many people from whom they can take orders. The property structure follows the criteria of property or stock ownership and the property must be one that earns profit for the owner.
In a bureaucratic industrial society where social stratification follows an occupation, authority, and property ownership criteria, social ranking follows criteria such as the upper class, the corporate class, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class.
The Upper Class:
The upper class signifies people from families that own a lot of profit-generating property and authority from corporations.
The Corporate Class:
The corporate class signifies individuals playing top roles in corporations in without necessarily owning the corporations.
The Middle Class:
Individuals with relatively little property ownership but they hold high occupational positions and authority.
Working Class:
People with little property or without any property at all. They also do not have any positions of authority.
Other System of Stratification
While class as a measure of stratification is dominant in industrial societies for it follows an achievement-based system, ascribed stratification is common in other countries in Europe and Asia. Ascription stratification places people in different social classes based on qualities beyond their control. For example, the royal class in the United Kingdom is based hereditary factors regardless of the amount of property owned by an individual. Other forms of ascription are based on factors such as race and gender. Race and gender have been significant factors in determining social mobility in the United States and other industrial societies (Beeghley, 2015). The difference between an achievement-based stratification system and the ascription system is that the former can change while the latter cannot change because it is based on factors beyond an individual’s control.
Topic 2
Karl Marx and Max Weber Theoretical Perspectives
Karl Marx divided all production systems in two major divisions: the base, which comprises of workers, and the conditions they work in, and property relation, which comprises of people who own the means of production (Lenski, 2013). Production systems, therefore, automatically create a class system where the upper classes employ the lower class. The lower class depends on the upper class for employment and the latter rules the lower class by being the source of wages. The means of production owned by the upper class of a production system include the political power to influence policy decisions on labor, large tracts of land, and the money to purchase new technologies, and other privileges in the society. Marx divides the working class of the population into the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, and the lumpenproletariat. The bourgeoisie comprises of wage-earners that are concerned with increased property ownership. They work towards acquiring more wealth and they aspire to join the upper class. The proletariat earns their living by providing their labor in industrial production. Members of the proletariat are often poor because they are vulnerable to economic conditions that have direct impacts on employment and wages. The lumpenproletariat, on the other hand, is lowest division of the working population that Marx considers undesirable. They are not engaged in industrial or revolutionary activities.
Marx Weber’s theory of stratification was a reiteration of Marx’s theory, but with more details in terms of explaining class differences in the society. Weber postulated that class in the society has three aspects: (1) the causal component that determines the life chances of actors; (2) the causal component is driven by economic interests and wealth; and (3) the causal component is inherent or defined by commodity markets and the conditions of the labor market. Weber thus concluded that the quality of life and living standards in a population are determined possession of material resource and the advantage an individual accumulates in the market place.
The difference between the perspectives of Marx and Weber is that Marx believed that the uniformity of social action was primarily influenced by class interests. Weber, on the other hand, rejected the idea of class interests as the exclusive motivation behind certain social actions. He believed that social actions are unpredictable due to other factors such as the role of intellectuals. Intellectuals play a very significant role in bringing attention to the differences between property owners and non-property owners or obscuring the differences so that no class action occurs. Weber’s position is agreeable because it is applicable in modern economies where intellectuals play a vital role in bringing attention to the unfairness of property owners through industrial actions and labor disputes.
References
Beeghley, L. (2015). Structure of social stratification in the United States. Routledge.
Lenski, G. E. (2013). Power and privilege: A theory of social stratification. UNC Press Books.
McLeod, J. D. (2013). Social stratification and inequality. In Handbook of the sociology of mental health (pp. 229-253). Springer Netherlands.
