Social Inequality

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The definition of social stratification

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inequality has been hardened or institutionalized and there is a system of social relationships that deteremins who gets what, and why

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Whats the focus of social stratification

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the modern world system og global economy

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The definition of Social Inequality

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the condition whereby people have unequal access to valued resources, services, and positions in the society

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The definition of achievement

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refers to placement based on individual merit or, as the name suggests achievement

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The definition of class

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a grouping of individuals with similar positions and similar political and economic interest within the stratification system.

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The definition of world system

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The economic shift is related to the relative economic decline of the Unites States begnning in the 1970s in what is called the modern world system or global economy.

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Income

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money, wages, and payments that periodically are received as returns from an occupation or investments.

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Wealth

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accumulated assets in the form of various types of valued goods, such as real estate, stocks, bonds, or money held in reserve.

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Country with highest ratio of top to bottom income

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Denmark or Austria

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Percentage of wealth owned by the top 10% in the US

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71.2%

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Stratification systems and class

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primitive communal societies- represent the earliest forms of social organization. Their economy is based on simple hunting and gathering methods of killing or trapping animals, with little use of agricultural methods of food production.

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Stratification systems and class

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slavery- this form of domination emerged soon after human beings settled down in established agricultural communities, reaching its high point with agrarian civilizations. It can be found in deifferent parts of the world in slightly altered forms, but with a few major characteristics dominating.

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Stratification systems and class

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caste system-in the Indian caste system four main divisions or castes (varnas), wth priests (Brahmans) and a warrior caste (Kshatriyas) on top of this highly rigid hierarchy, developed.

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Stratification systems and class

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Estate or feudal-is primarily a relationship based on military power or economic dominance

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What characterizes a class system

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The industrial revolution ultimately shaped a new system of stratification we call a class system. Some characteristics of a class system have existed before-during the Roman Empire, for example- but it was not until the emergence of industrial societies that this kind of stratification system could survive and spread around the world. This is not to say that class systems throughout the world are identical. One of the most important aspects of class socieities is their industrial (in contrast to agrarian) economic base.

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Issues regarding the increase and/or decrease in equality.

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Hunting and gathering societies-Changed from 10,000 years ago and the type of statification system was primitive comunal

Early agrarian societies-From 6,000 years ago and it was slave systems, feudal, or caste systems. They generally had centralized governments with political and religious ruling elites who has vast economic as well as polotical control. The state function was to enforce laws, draft soldiers, levy taxes, and extract tribute from conquereed territories.

Late agrarian societies-From appx 2-3,000 years ago and the type of stratification system was feudal/estate, caste, Asia mode. In the East, China, for example, was able to absorb the nomadic invaders with less social disorganization. And in the middle east, north africa, and spain, the islamic empire emerged witht the fall of the roman empire to bring advance and social order.

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Changes from feudalism to industrialization

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Three principal actors were thrown into conflict by these changes: (1) the old noblity or aristrocracy whose profit and influence ultimately depended on land owner-ship, (2) the political elite whose position came with the large state bureaucracy that (as we have seen) originally developed to protect the interests of the nobility, and (3) a new and increasingly powerful merchant class that depended on the emerging industrail system of production.

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Lenski theoretical arguments

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He generally found out that the level of inequality in a society is related to (1) the level of technology and (2) the amount of surplus good produced by that society

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The theme of Karl Marx's theory

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In short, Marx believed that to understand human societies the theorist must begin with the material conditions of human subsistence, or the economics of producing the necessities of life. And to understand human societies most fully, the key is the historical progression or development of these material conditions of production.

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Definition and importance of means of production

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Refers most directly to the type of technology used to produce goods (such as hunting and gathering, agrarian methods of varying sophistication, machine technology). The level of technology has many important consequences for the general nature of the society and the stratification system.

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Marx's "predictions" regarding monopoly capitalism and communist revolution.

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The nations that have experienced "communist revolution" (Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam), contrary to Marxian ideas, were less-industrialized, principally agrarian societies. In the most advanced capitalist nations, where he saw communist revolution as most likely, the working class has been less than revolutionary. Marx failed to see how a state coming to power in the name of his ideas could develop into a society far from what he envisioned, as did the states of the failed communist societies. hE ALSO FAILED TO SEE HOW A WELFARE STATE could develop in capitalist societies to manage some of the conflicts, exploitation, and internal contradictions that he believed would lead to the demise of capitalism.

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Max Weber's issues with Karl Marx's theories

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The first, his expansion of Marx's single class or economic dimension of social stratifaction into a multidimensional view (class, status, and party), has provided us with a very useful tool in understanding the complex nature of social stratification. Perhaps most important, however, Weber's writings on the development and growth of large bureaucratic institutions has enabled us to understand the nature of power and dominance within advanced industrial societies of all types (whether capitalist or communist) better than any other single idea by a social theorist.

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david and moore theory of stratification

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1. certain positons in any society are functionally more important than others, and require special skills to fill them. 2. only a limited number of people in any society have the talents that can be trained into the skills appropriate to these positions. 3. the conversion of talents into skills involves a training period during which sacrifices of one kind or another are made by those undergoing the training. 4. In order to induce the talented people to undergo these sacrifices and acquire the training, their future positions must carry an inducement value in the form of a differential--that is, privileged and disproportionate access to the scarce and desired rewards the society has to offer. 5. these scarce and desired goods consist of the rights and prerequisites attached to, or build into, the positions, and can be classified into those things that contribute to (a) sustenance and comfort, (b) humor and diversion, and (c) self-respect and ego expansion. 6. this differential access to the basic rewards of the society has a consequence the differentiation of the prestige and esteem various strata acquire. It may be said to constitute, along with the rights and prerequisites, institutionalized social inequality; that is, stratification. 7. therefore, social inequality among different strata in the amounts of scarce and desired goods and the amounts of prestige and esteem they receive is both positively functional and inevitable in any society.

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The functionalist theory of stratification

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He argued that two sets of concepts are most important in helping us understand social stratification. In his article on social stratification in 1940, Parsons wrote that "central for the purposes of this discussion is the differential evaluation in the moral sense of individuals as units." In his subsequent works on social stratification in 1949, 1953, and 1970, this theme was continued. What parsons means by this, as in the warner school, is that status or honor is the most important dimension of social stratification. People are evaluated and ranked by others in terms of how well they live up to the dominant values in the society, whatever these values may be. This means that there will always be a hierarchy of status honor in every society.

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The importance of the occupation structure in society

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Thus, with the occupational structure we are stressing objective class factors and a continuous ranking. We are not saying that these rankings are determined and rewards given because of the contribution to the needs of society made by a person in his or her occupation, or that status is received primarily because a certain occupation or skill level meets society's needs (the functionalist position). Rather, we are suggesting that rewards are given because the jobs are more or less important to the people (economic or bureaucratic elites) who are more in control of the rewards to be given.

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Wright's theory

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Wright was able to show significant income differences between class categories and differing effects of education in obtaining more income (such as managers receiving a greater return from more education).

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The percent of the U.S. population in the upper class

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0.5 to 1 percent

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Baltzell and class consciousness

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Several social scientists argue that the upper class shows a higher degree of class consciousness and unity of action with respect to common political and economic interests than any other class in the united states. an important reason for this is that the upper class, due to its close interaction in early school years and later in life, has created a strong "we" feeling.

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Domhoff's theory and perspectives

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Underlying the American upper class are a set of social institutions which are its backbone--private schools, elite universities, the 'right' fraternities and sororities, gentlemen's clubs, debutante balls, summer resorts, charitable and cultural organizations, and such recreational activities such as fox hunts, polo matches, and yachting.

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Mintz and Freitag and their study of cabinet members

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66 percent of these cabinet members could be classified as members of the upper class before obtaining their cabinet positions. The number of cabinet members coming from the upper class was fairly consistent between 1897 and 1973, suggesting that Baltzell (1964) was incorrect in his belief that the upper class is not participating in government as much as it once did. Mintz data showed that republican presidents chose more than 71 percent of their cabinet members from the upper class while democratic presidents chose more than 60 percent from the upper class.

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the policy formation process

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At the heart of this process are upper-class and corporate money and personnel that fund and guide research on important questions through foundations and universities, then process the information through policy-planning groups sponsored by the upper class that make direct recommendations to government and influence the influence the population and government leaders in favoring specific policy alternatives.

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the definition of the corporate class and where it falls in the U.S. stratification system.

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corporate class-retains many of the same characteristics as the upper class; however its basis of power lies not so much with ownership of the means of production, but rather with control of the major means of production (large corporations) in this advanced capitalist society. Is a social structure that provides a group of otherwise normal people with the power to protect and maintain its particular economic and political interests, even when theses interests are in conflict with others in the society.

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The percent of industrial assets held by the top corporations

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1950-39.8%, 1960-46.4%, 1965-46.5%, 1970-52.3%, 1980-55% 1993-75%

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The corporation leader in pressuring suppliers to move jobs to poor countries for lower wages

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WALMART

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Interlocking Directorates

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can be defined as the linking of two or more corporations through at least one of their board members. For example, a member of the board of directors of corporation A is also a member of the board of directors of corporation B.

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Definition of the working class

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defined as the blue-collar people occupy mid-level to low positions within the occupational structure. Working-class occupations are typically characterized by relatively low skill level, lower education, and a lower

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definition of the middle class

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is located within a range of occupations ranked (in terms of complexity and skill) from the highest (such as the traditional professions of doctor and lawyer, accountants, architects, higher-level scientists,and engineers) to mid-level (such as public school teachers, insurance agents, sales clerks, and office workers).

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indicators of class position

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income distribution by class, conditions of work, work satisfaction and alienation, the physical conditions of work, class subcultures and lifestyles, sociability and community participation, childhood socialization

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percent of labor force in unions, global perspective

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united states 13.5, japan 27, england 42, west germany 34

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countries and their rates of relative poverty

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US-19.1, UK-14.6, Australia-12.9, Japan-11.8, Canada-11.7, Germany-7.6, France-7.5, The Netherlands-6.7, Norway-6.6, Italy-6.5, Finland-6.2

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theory of Individualism

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defined as broadly as the belief that the individual is more important than the social group. We can understand (1) how the general population tends to view the poor in our society (2) what some of the particular problems faced by the poor are (3) how our present welfare system is designed and (4) what some of the main points of the first group of theories examined here mean.

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theories of gender inequality

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gender and work-women do most of the work of "status enhancement" through voluntary work and leisure activities that enhance the prestige of high statu males. much of the "emotional labor" and "kin work" associated with meeting the needs of family members, connecting with kin and community, and maintaining family and friendship networks is also a womans responsibility. all of these forms of work, as we know, are not considered productive work, but as we shall soon see, have a crucial impact on the status and worth of women in relation to men.