Stratification and Inequality

Social Stratification
• Social Stratification = a social
hierarchy, or evaluation-ranking-
reward system
– People are the top are considered
better than those at the bottom.
– The definition of ‘better’ depends
on the criterion of evaluation:
Braver, Smarter, Stronger, Purer…
– People are not only different, they
are seen as superior or inferior.

• Social Stratification =
– In nearly all societies, people are
evaluated on the basis of some
characteristic and placed into
higher or lower-ranking groups.
– Actors are sorted into social
positions that carry unequal
rewards, obligations, and
expectations

3 characteristics:
1. They persist for a long time
2. They are resistant to change
(‘conservative’)
3. Each is supported by a
‘legitimating rationale’ or
ideology.

Caste Systems
• In a caste system, one’s rank
is determined at birth; based
on ascribed characteristics.
3 characteristics:
1. Separation in matters of
marriage and contact
2. Division of labor
3. Hierarchy in which one group
is regarded as superior to
another.

Caste Systems
• Most famous is that founded in
India about 4,000 years ago.
• Portuguese described these
groups as ‘casta’ meaning
‘pure’; the groups were like
different races
• In India, based on Hindu ideas
of transmigration
(reincarnation) of soul and
karma: ‘inexorable application
of the law of cause and effect’

Estate Systems
• Characterizes the status
hierarchies found in Europe
Aristocracy prior to capitalism.
• Membership in the Church
(clergy) was not based on
ascribed characteristics.
• However, highest rankings
Clergy within clergy come from
first estate (aristocracy).
• Like the caste
system, position in an estate
Serfs
system is determined at
birth. Contact is
permitted, but generally
impersonal.

Estate Systems
• The sovereign (king) would
give land grants to his
military allies who helped
him conquer a region.
• Over time, these land grants
were usually given to the
heirs of the previous owner,
thus becoming hereditary.
• Peasants , or serfs, were
people legally tied to specific
parcels of land! They in
effect belonged to the land-
owning aristocrat!

Estate Systems
• In feudalism, the person above
you, to whom you were obligated
was called your lord, and the people
below you were called your vassals.
• Unlike a military chain of
command, however, in
feudalism, ‘the vassal of my vassal is
not my vassal’!
– The subordinates of the people
subordinated to you were not
necessarily loyal to you!

Class Systems
• In theory, a class system is a
hierarchy based on achieved
characteristics in a society of
equal opportunity, i.e. a
meritocracy.
• Class systems are legitimized
by the belief that rewards are
proportional to effort or
talent, i.e. people get what
they deserve.

Theorizing Social Stratification
• Are all social stratification systems
based on a single salient
characteristic or many? If there are
many ways of evaluating
people, can we regard one as being
the most important in a society?
• Is there only one hierarchy or
several overlapping hierarchies? Is
social stratification uni-dimensional
or multi-dimensional?

• Karl Marx: argues that one’s relationship to the ‘means of
production’ determines the status hierarchy of a society.
– In capitalism, this means that the most important force of social
change comes from the conflict of interest between owners and
workers.
• Max Weber: argues that the most important aspect
determining one’s position in the status hierarchy is not one’s
relationship to the means of production, but one’s market
situation.

vs

• Weber defines class as follows:
– The term class refers to any group
of people … [who have the same]
typical chance for a supply of
goods, external living
conditions, and personal life Wealth
experiences, insofar as this
chance is determined by the …
power … to dispose of goods or
skills for the sake of income in a
given economic order …. Class Power Prestige
situation in this sense is
ultimately market situation.
• Social stratification is multi-
dimensional Different dimensions of status.

• SES = socioeconomic
standing, or socioeconomic
status.
– In sociology, we usually
acknowledge that one’s position
in the overall status hierarchy is Prestige Wealth
influenced by a variety of factors.
– Money and power are related and
tend to reinforce one another, but
they do not always overlap! Power
– A person can be very influential
and powerful, but be poor.
Someone can be very wealthy but
lack prestige, etc.

• Weber defines POWER as
follows: ‘the chance of a man or a
number of men to realize their own will
even against the resistance of others...’
• “Without exception every sphere of
social action is profoundly influenced
by structures of domination”
• Charismatic leaders use personal
authority to generate mass followings
that challenge the traditional order. Mussolini and Hitler are
(negative) examples
of charismatic leaders

Levels of Societal Complexity
1. Theocentrism: one religious worldview that everyone shares. God is at
the top.
2. Anthrpocentrism: ‘Man’ is at the center. Other cultures and worldviews
are acknowledged, but regarded as inferior.
3. Polycentricism= “many centers”: society with many centers, many
contexts or situations. Poly-contexturality = “many contexts”:
no meta-context or super-set of situations embeds all others from the point of
view of all others.

Theocentrism Anthropocentrism Polycentrism

Slavery
• Slavery has existed within all three
types of social stratification systems
just mentioned.
• Most extreme form of slavery is
called chattel slavery.
• Slaves are sometimes prisoners of
war or debtors. However, if slavery
persists for more than a few
generations, it tends to become
hereditary.
• Slaves can be manumitted, or
freed, whereas outcastes cannot lose
their status.

How does inequality arise in class-
based societies?
Three possible explanations:
1. Individualist, or Market framework
– Hierarchies are emergent.
– Inequality of individuals’ effort or talent lead to inequality of
status positions (income, power, prestige, etc.)
– Higher ‘rewards’ for some individuals are both i) compensation
for their effort, and ii) incentives to elicit that effort
2. ‘Structural’ framework
– Hierarchies are enacted (i.e. imposed)
– Differences in outcomes (status) not due to intrinsic individual
attributes, but to the social positions they occupy.

How does inequality arise in class-
based societies?
3. ‘Rich get richer’ framework:
– hierarchies are emergent, (i.e.
unintended, spontaneous) but resulting inequalities
don’t reflect the efforts or talents of the individuals.
– People in higher-ranking groups receive
disproportionally more rewards, and those in lower-
ranking groups disproportionally fewer rewards,
– In other words, differences in social rewards are far
greater than the differences in ‘talent’ upon which
these rewards are ostensibly based.

‘Rich get richer’ framework
• Even assuming perfect equality of opportunity, and
assuming everyone desires to live in a society where social
rewards are based on one’s talents and/or hard work, we
should not expect that the differences in the social rewards
received will be proportional to the differences in the
talents/efforts of the individuals!
• Those with a little more ‘talent’ get disproportionately
more rewards, far more than they deserve, even assuming
perfect equality of opportunity!
Differences in talent

No talent Lots of talent

Differences in social
rewards

• Do these people have talent?
(acting
skill, charisma, beauty, etc.)
• If so, is the above-average
wealth and fame they receive
proportional to their above-
average talents?
• Why are these people wealthy
and famous and not you!?

How it works:
• Our evaluations of others are socially influenced: People pay
attention to how everyone else is being evaluated by everyone
else.
– This amplifies underlying differences between individuals and
makes the rewards allotted to them disproportional to their
talents and/or efforts.
– Examples:
i. People who are popular tend to attract more attention than
non-popular people. Why? Because they are already popular!
ii. Children with a reputation for being ‘bad’ are more likely to get
in trouble compared to a ‘good’ kid, for doing the same things.
iii. Some journal articles get cited way more than others, simply
because they are more frequently cited.

• The ‘rich get richer’ effect is also known as:
winner-take-all effects, cascade
effects, popularity tournaments, the Matthew
effect, and preferential attachment.
• These are all examples of positive (reinforcing)
feedback.
• Conclusion: even if there was total equality of
opportunity, and everyone had identical
talents, you would still expect to see
hierarchies in class-based societies!

How much inequality is acceptable?
• Even if rewards were proportional to talents, this
would not be sufficient to justify an unequal society.
• Why reward those with more innate ability?
• How much inequality one tolerates is really a
normative or moral question.
– For example: we could assert that there ought not be
any particular relationship between what one can
accomplish and what social and psychic rewards are
given.
– “From each according to his ability, to each according
to his need”- Marx.

Kuznets Curve
 The Kuznets Curve plots the
relationship between Economic
Growth and Inequality within
countries

 In the 1950s the economist Simon
Kuznets hypothesized that as
countries developed
(industrialized), inequality would (1901 – 1985)
rise initially, but after a certain
threshold of development had
been reached, income inequality
would eventually decline.

Kuznets Curve
• Plotted on a graph, the relationship looks like this:

• This hypothesize was generally discredited. There is not
a single relationship between economic growth and
inequality describing all countries and time periods.

Stratification and Inequality

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