Social Stratification
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
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
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)
Distribution of Wealth in US
• The richest 20% of the population earn
nearly 48% of the nation’s total income
• The poorest 20% have only 4.2% of the
national income
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
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
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
Plural theorists
• Argue that power is not tightly
concentrated but widely dispersed
• Power of big business is balanced by
that of big labor and gov’t actions are
determined by competition and
compromise
– Ordinary citizens have the power to vote
anyone into or out of office
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
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
A person’s 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