s homework 3

Social Class

Basic Definitions

A. Life Chances

The following example highlights how social class determines one’s “fate” in life. Social class affects one’s life chances across a broad spectrum of social phenomenon from health care, to educational attainment, to participation in the political process, to contact with the criminal justice system.

B. What is Social Stratification?

Social stratification refers to the division of a society into layers (or strata) whose occupants have unequal access to social opportunities and rewards. People in the top strata enjoy power, prosperity, and prestige that are not available to other members of society; people in the bottom strata endure penalties that other members of society escape. In a stratified society, inequality is part of the social structure and passes from one generation to the next.

C. What is a Class?

People who occupy the same layer of the socioeconomic hierarchy are known as a social class.  According to Henslin, a social class is a large group of people who rank closely to one another in wealth, power, and prestige.

The class system is an open form of stratification based primarily on economic criteria. Using their agency, individuals can move around within the class system even though the social structure of a society might not favor mobility that much. Their status can improve or decline. Class membership depends, at least in part, on characteristics which the individual can control. Keep in mind, however, that people tend to be born into class structure. Change is difficult. Historic conditions determine social class structure. The ideology of the dominant culture perpetuates class structure. The type of class structure which allows the greatest mobility is generally a modern industrial society.

Perspectives on Class

A. Functionalist View

Functionalist sees class structure is necessary.  Functionalist concern themselves with how a society can encourage the most qualified people to do the most important jobs.  Class structure facilitates this end.

1. Class structure provides a competitive arena that allows the best rise to the top of the social strata.

2. Class structure provides a motivating force and an arena for individual achievement. It offers prizes that challenge people to work hard.

B. Conflict View of Social Class Theory (Hint: I tend to adopt this view)

Conflict theory argues that the basis of social stratification is found in conflict over some kind of scare resources.  Conflict theory contends that stratification is not necessary, but is maintained to safeguard the ruling class's privileges.  Those who find social class beneficial are those who have "made it" in the system.

Rather than stratification being a fluid system of upward and downward mobility based on ability, the class system is actually characterized by institutional inequalities in income and wealth.  Only on rare occasions do Americans break through the class barrier. Usually break through occurs as a result of a lucky "roll of the dice." Few people actually succeed at social advancement through sheer hard work.

Social Mobility

Social mobility generally refers to the movement from one social class to another. The conflict view argues that the social mobility in the US social structure is very difficult while the stratification theory embraces the possibility for more openly. By not questioning the constraints of the social structure and the conflicts in between the different social class positions, the stratification theory tends to equate all individuals in the society and their capabilities.

Analysis of Class: Karl Marx

Karl Marx studied the forces that caused the misery of the working class in 19th Century Western Europe.  The student of Marx cannot forget that Marx is a historic figure.  He wrote in the middle 1800 when social relations were somewhat different from those found at the end of the 20th century.  At the time of Marx a handful of wealthy capitalist exploited a large and impoverished working class. For Marx, ownership of  the means of production was the primary factor that distinguished the different classes under industrial capitalism. 

What is a Social Class According to Marx?

In Marxist terminology, "a class consists of all the people who share a common relationship to the means of production". Those people who control the means of production (whether that means factories or slaves or land) make up the dominant class or the bourgeoisie. And those who work for the dominant class (slaves, peasants, industrial laborers)are the subordinate class or the proletariat. This relationship is both unequal and exploitative in that the dominant class takes unfair advantage of the subordinate class.

Surplus Wealth

How does inequality occur in the first place? The workers produce surplus wealth.  Workers transform raw material into finished products.  The value of the finished product is greater than the cost of  the worker's labor and the cost of raw material.   The workers, however, do not enjoy the surplus which they have created. The owners of the means of production (factories) are able to seize the surplus for their own benefits. Robertson (1989:172) contends that "this, in Marx's view, is the essence of exploitation, and the main source of conflict between the classes throughout history."  Marx would argue that in an ideal economy, the workers would keep the surplus they have created as they transform raw material into finished products.

Several features of advanced capitalist society have thrown doubt on Marx's predictions.

1. What about the middle-class?

The existence of the middle class is problematic for Marx. Not only are the middle-class a large and well-to-do class, they generally do not work for the owners of the means of production. They often work for their fellow citizen (as state bureaucrats) or they are self-employed.

2. Large Corporations

Marx also did not predict the rise of large corporations which are owned by thousands of people and which are controlled by salaried managers. Ownership and control of the means of production are no longer the same thing.

Maintaining Inequality

The United States has great inequality. How is it possible that such an unequal system can exist? Always, the majority are denied the wealth of a few. Revolutions, however, are rare compared to all political activity. Two explanations seem to explain why revolutions are so rare. On one hand, the dominant class controls resources. On the other hand, there is wide spread belief that the rule of the upper class is legitimate.

Marx notes that social institutions tend to reflect the will of the dominant class. This does not mean that the ruling class actually plots to control institutions.

A. Social Networks: The government does not conspire to control all wealth. The rich act in their common interests by simply knowing each other and by sharing a common agenda.

B. Legitimacy: Many, even the poor, see the power of the rich as legitimate. The masses view the given political economy as valid and justified.

C. Ideology: An ideology is a set of beliefs which explain or justifies some actual or potential social arrangement. An ideology is a belief structure that confers legitimacy on a social system. 

Example: A system of beliefs that justifies a social arrangement like slavery is a ideology (Henslin, 2004, 168).

Portraits of the Classes

We tend to think that the American Dream comes true for the majority of the population in the US. However, the data suggests that more than 50% of the US population belong to working or lower classes. The following material is taken from Charon (1986):

- Upper Class (1 percent of total population): The upper-class consists of relatively few individuals and families (a small executive club) with great wealth and great power in the economy. Generally the upper-class inherit their wealth. It comes in the form of property and other assets. While this group does not have to work, they often serve on the boards of directors of major corporations. From this vantage point, the upper-class occupies a position from which they can have great impact on the course of world history. The upper-class has a certain life style in which individuals are careful to socialize only with the "right crowd."

- Upper Middle-Class (10 Percent): The Upper middle-class consists of "successful business people, executives, professionals, and high ranking civil and military officials. Ownership of business as well as prestigious occupations bring wealth to these individuals. Most have high levels of education. The wealth of this class comes from investment and savings. Unlike in the upper class, they inherit little of their wealth. This group is very active politically and culturally.

-(Lower) Middle Class (27 percent): The lower middle-class also consists of professionals, semi professionals and small business people. People who make up the middle-class are less affluent and occupy fewer prestigious positions that the Upper Middle-class. The middle class includes nurses, teachers, police officers, and social workers. The middle-class includes most of the white collar work force and others who earn "respectable" livings. Jobs for this group are generally secure. The middle-class is well educated. They also have great political impact. It was this group after all, who got the US out of Vietnam and who lead the California tax rebellion.

-Working Class (40 percent): The working class consists of skilled and unskilled workers (blue collar workers), factory workers, farm hands, sales personnel, and low-level clerical workers. Usually these positions do not require college. Although many in this class belong to unions, it is not, as a rule, an effective political force. Jobs performed by this group are routine, mechanized, and closely supervised. These jobs are less secure than jobs performed by people in the middle-class. The working-class is less secure now than in the past. As corporation shift their operations offshore, jobs traditionally done by this group are now performed by Third-Worlders.

- Lower Class (20 percent): The lower-class consists of the poor. The lower-class experiences high rates of unemployment and dependency on government, employers, the state of the economy, and landlords. People from the lower-class are not likely to succeed in the educational system. They experience prejudice from the legal system. This class seldom exerts itself politically.

- The Under-class (4 percent): See William Julius Wilson.

Works Cited

Appelbaum, Richard P. and William J. Chambliss

1997 Sociology: A Brief Introduction. New York: Longman.

Bassis, Michael S and Richard J. Gelles, Ann Levine

1991 Sociology: An Introduction. (4th Ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.