Chapter 7

Front 1

Social equality

Back 1

A condition in which no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist.

Front 2

Dialectic

Back 2

A two-directional relationship, following a pattern in which an original statement or thesis is countered with an antithesis leading to a conclusion that unites the strengths of the original position and the counterarguments.

Front 3

Equality of opportunity

Back 3

The idea that everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game, so to speak, are the same for everyone.

Front 4

Bourgeois society

Back 4

A society of commerce (modern capitalist society, for example) in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive.

Front 5

Equality of condition

Back 5

The idea that everyone should have an equal starting point.

Front 6

Equality of outcome

Back 6

The idea that each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the "game".

Front 7

Free rider problem

Back 7

The notion that when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentives is for each individual to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight.

Front 8

Estate system

Back 8

A politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility.

Front 9

Caste system

Back 9

A religion-based system of stratification characterized by no social mobility.

Front 10

Class system

Back 10

An economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive, oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility.

Front 11

Proletariat

Back 11

The working class

Front 12

Bourgeoisie

Back 12

The capitalist class

Front 13

Contradictory class locations

Back 13

Th idea that people can occupy locations in the class structure that fall between the two "pure" classes.

Front 14

Status hierarchy system

Back 14

A system of stratification based on social prestige.

Front 15

Elite-mass dichotomy system

Back 15

A system of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold power in society.

Front 16

Meritocracy

Back 16

A society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement.

Front 17

Socioeconomic status

Back 17

An individual's position in a stratified social order.

Front 18

Income

Back 18

Money received by a person for work, from transfers (gifts, inheritances, or government assistance),or from returns on investments.

Front 19

Wealth

Back 19

A family's or individual's net worth (that is, total assets minus total debts).

Front 20

Upper class

Back 20

A term for the economic elite.

Front 21

Middle class

Back 21

A term commonly used to describe those individuals with nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line-through this is a highly debated and expansive category, particularly in the United States, where broad swathes of the population consider themselves middle class.

Front 22

Social mobility

Back 22

The movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society.

Front 23

Structural mobility

Back 23

Mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economy.

Front 24

Exchange mobility

Back 24

Mobility in which, if we hold fixed the changing distributions of jobs, individuals trade jobs not one-to-one but in a way that ultimately balances out.

Front 25

Status-attainment model

Back 25

Approach that ranks individuals by socioeconomic status, including income and educational attainment, and seeks to specify the attributes characteristics of people who end up in more desirable occupations.