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Social Stratification

Notes To ensure equality in the true sense, basic structural conditions on the social system may be
imposed. For example, free market arrangements can exist within a framework of political and
legal institutions. The framework regulates excessive accumulations of property and wealth and
equal opportunities of education for all. Rawls writes : “Chances to acquire cultural knowledge
and skills should not depend upon one’s class position, and so the school system, whether public
or private, should be designed to even out class barriers.” Rawls deals mainly with the “democratic
equality”. Natural aristocracy implies that social contingencies are not regulated beyond what is
required by formal equality of opportunity, for the good of the poor sections of society.
According to Rawls, democratic equality and the principle of difference are coterminous and
coexistent. The principle of difference removes indeterminance of the principle of efficacy by
judging the social and economic inequalities of the basic structure. Equality implies improving the
expectations of the least advantaged members of society, rather than higher expectations of the
better situated members. Distribution of income and access to resources of society can explain the
principles of difference and efficacy keeping in view the better off and the disadvantaged members
and their expectations. The difference principle can benefit practically every one. For example,
functional gradations, as explained by S. Ossowski in case of Poland, are based on the necessity of
difference, and not on the basis of hierarchical arrangement of society.
Rawls explains equality as an egalitarian conception of justice. The principle of difference, being
an inevitable phenomenon, is related to redressal of disadvantages of the deserving members of
society. Inequalities are there because the distribution of natural talents and contingencies of
social circumstance are unjust. Further, Rawls observes that “the natural distribution is neither
just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular positions.
These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these
facts”. Ascriptive basis for distribution is unjust in a caste society because the system becomes
closed. Arbitrariness of the system makes it unjust and inequalitarian.
Further, Rawls mentions that the basis of equalities lies in justice. There are three levels as observed
by Rawls where the concept of equality applies. These are : (1) the administration of institutions
as public systems of rules; (2) the application of equality to the substantive structure of institutions;
and (3) the entitlement of the moral persons to equal justice.
Thus, equality is essentially justice as regularity. Equal basic rights need to be assigned to all
persons. Persons who are capable of having a conception of their good and a sense of justice, an
effective desire to act and to adhere to the principles of justice, may be granted equality for their
own good and that of their society. As such, equality cannot rest on natural attributes.
Rawls offers some general comments on equality. We have to ensure that everyone has equal
rights. The principles of justice are applied equally to all. A procedural rule without substantive
force alone cannot ensure justice and equality. Fairness is the kernel of equality, for example, the
distribution of certain goods, and equality of the respect owed to persons irrespective of their
social position, can be explained by the principle of justice. The first is defined by the second, and
second is defined by the first. There is a balancing mechanism in society which is based on
fairness of opportunity.
The ideas of absolute equality, justice and fairness are simply utopia. However, human history
shows that efforts have always been made to eradicate, remove or weaken social and economic
inequalities with a view to have equality among men to the maximum extent possible in a given
society. As inequality persists, so is eagerness to have equality in society. The two are relative and
paradoxical phenomena.
In the Indian context, particularly with reference to policy of reservations in educational institutions
and in government jobs, Marc Galanter refers to formal vs substantive equality, and vertical and
horizontal views on equality. In fact, Galanter talks of equal opportunity and the varied meanings

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