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Social Stratification

Notes 13.1 Changing Dimensions of Social Stratification

Class
Adam Smith, much before Karl Marx and Max Weber, talked of capitalists and labourers in An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. We presume that Marx was considerably
inspired by Smith in formulation of his theory of class, class struggle and class consciousness.
Smith realized the significance of labour and labour power, particularly when he was not under
the command of a landlord or a master. When land became a private property, the landlord
demanded a share of almost all the produce which the labourer could either raise, or collect from
it. His rent made the first deduction from produce of the labour which was employed upon land.
Secondly, the person who tills the ground has wherewithal the ground to maintain himself till he
reaps the harvest. The master maintains his existence by giving advance, and in return he gets
share in the produce of his labour. Thirdly, the produce of almost all other labour is liable to the
like deduction of profit. Much before Marx, Smith voiced for the cause of the labour. He writes:
“In all arts and manufactures the greater part of the workmen stand in need of a master to
advance them the materials of their work, and their wages and maintenance till it be completed.
He shares in the produce of their labour, or in the value which it adds to the materials upon which
it is bestowed; and in this share consists his profit.”
There are not many independent persons combining the roles of a master and a workman. The
masters can combine easily the law and authorities, but workmen cannot do it. Workmen cannot
subsist even for a work, the masters, landlords, master manufacturers or merchants can survive
on their own for a long time. Thus, Smith clearly describes the division of society into classes
(particularly two).
While agreeing with Adam Smith on classes, i.e., capitalists and labourers, Smith’s contemporary
Thomas R. Malthus writes : “In every society that has advanced beyond the savage state, a class
of proprietors, and a class of labourers, must necessarily exist.” By no means the present great
inequality of property is either necessary or useful to society. It must certainly be considered as an
evil and every institution that promotes it is essentially bad and impolitic. Malthus uses much
before Marx, the Marxist language in favour of the poor. He says that the labour is the only
property of the class of labourers. This is the only commodity he has, which he gives in exchange
of the necessities of life.
The Marxian Concept of Class
According to Marx, there are three classes, namely, labourers, capitalists and landowners. There
are also middle and intermediate strata. However, landlords obliterate under the capitalist mode
of production. Only capitalists and wage labourers ultimately constitute the two classes whom
Marx refers as bourgeoisie and proletariat. The bourgeoisie are haves, hence they become a ruling
class. The proletariat are have-nots, hence they become an oppressed class. The relations between
these two classes are determined by their respective positions in the capitalist system of production.
All other relations in the society are determined by these basic relations. Marx terms the basic
relations as base, and the relations built after it are named as superstructure.
A clear exposition of the two classes, namely, bourgeoisie and proletariat is given by Karl Marx
and Frederick Engels in Manifesto of the Communist Party. They write : “The history of all hitherto
existing society is the history of class struggles.” They further write : “By bourgeoisie is meant the
class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage
labour. By proletariat, the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of
their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.” This is how the society has
always been divided mainly into two classes, that is, freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian,
lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman. These classes are that of the oppressor and the

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