Social Stratification

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Social Stratification
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What is social stratification?

• Creation of layers of people who possess unequal
  shares of scarce resources
• The haves and the have nots
• Bases of stratification
• Wealth
• Power
• prestige

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Wealth

• Karl Marx divided industrial societies into 2
  major classes
• Bourgeoisie (capitalists)
• Own the means of production and hire others to
  work
• Petite bourgeoisie- small capitalists
• Own means but do work themselves
• Proletariat (workers)
• Forced to work for capitalists

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Marx

• Exploitation of the proletariat characterizes the
  relationship between the 2 classes
• Eventually workers will rise in revolt and
  establish a classless society
• Failed to foresee that the exploitation of
  workers would ease and that a large class of
  white collar workers would emerge (like in US)

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Distribution of Wealth in US

• The richest 20 of the population earn nearly 48
  of the nations total income
• The poorest 20 have only 4.2 of the national
  income

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Power

• The ability to control the behaviors of others,
  even against their will
• Associated with wealth
• More wealth tends to more power
• Explains to domination of top govt positions by
  the wealthy
• Poorer people are more likely to feel powerless
  and are therefore more indifferent to politics

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Distribution of power

• Power cant be identified and measures as easily
  as wealth
• Marxists and elite theorists argue that a very
  small group holds most of the power in the US
• Capitalists or top business leaders
• This explains why large corporations through
  heavy political campaign contributions and
  lobbying are able to hold down their taxes and
  avoid regulations

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Power elite

• According the C. Wright Mills, the power elite- a
  small group of top leaders not just from business
  but fed govt and military- hold most of the power
• Members have similar backgrounds, values, and
  interests and together have a lot of power to
  make decisions for the nation

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Plural theorists

• Argue that power is not tightly concentrated but
  widely dispersed
• Power of big business is balanced by that of big
  labor and govt actions are determined by
  competition and compromise
• Ordinary citizens have the power to vote anyone
  into or out of office

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Prestige

• Status system- a system in which people are
  stratified according to their social prestige
• Prestige is subjective- depends on how the
  individual is perceived by others
• Someone can be rich and powerful but if seen as
  unworthy of respect they have low prestige
• Organized crime boss for example

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Prestige and occupation

• People have varying ideas about the prestige of
  various occupations
• Occupations that require more education and offer
  higher income are more prestigious

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A persons status

• Based on age, race, gender and occupation (among
  others)
• May create status inconsistency- same individual
  is given 2 conflicting status rankings
• Example high in occupation but low in ethnicity
  or gender
• People plagued with this may experience
  considerable stress and resentment
• Likely to support liberal and radical movements
  designed to change the status quo