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Social Stratification

Notes social relationships thereupon. Simmel also analyses non-hierarchical bases of hierarchy. Close to
the considerations of occupation, class and domination or hierarchy are the dichotomy of elite and
non-elite in society. Complex political processes determine selective recruitment of elite groups of
different sorts. Another explanation is T. Veblen’s theory of the leisure class. Veblen brings out
interrelations between the analysis of conflicting economic interest and the symbolic significance
of patterns of style of life for a fruitful comparative understanding. Veblen challenges exclusive
economic predominance in social relations. Pareto has also emphasized on the mismatch between
a rising business-oriented bourgeoisie and the controllers of political organization.
Besides Marx’s theory of class and class struggle, Max Weber’s theory of social stratification, in
terms of distinction between class, status and power, attained acceptance in academia in general.
Weber considered economic interest as a relative phenomenon. Lastly, the structural-functional
approach to social stratification has been quite popular and logically acceptable, particularly
among American sociologists. Talcott Parsons, K. Davis and W. Moore are its main exponents.
According to this approach, social stratification is universal, necessary and inevitable.

4.2 Theoretical Formulations of Karl Marx

Philosophy and Ideology of Karl Marx
Karl Marx is the principal architech of the historical dialectical approach to the study of society,
class and social stratification. Marxian theory is not a simple explanation of technological or
economic determinism. Marx propounded a grand theory of society. According to him, stratification
is determined by the system of relations of production, and “status” of a man is determined by his
position in this very system in terms of ownership and non-ownership of the means of production.
Marx does not make a distinction between “class” and “social stratification”. For him, “production”
is by social “individuals”, and therefore, it should be understood in “social context”. As such,
Marx’s theory of class could be understood as a system of social stratification in terms of
“domination” and “subjection” of “effective superiority-inferiority relationships”.
Marx tried to understand and analyse objective laws of the development of nature, society and
human thought to know the world and also to revolutionize it. The main points in his philosophy
and ideology were :
1. End of capitalism
2. The victory of communist society
3. A dream into science of society
4. Emancipation from oppression and exploitation of prole-tariat – a revolutionary class
5. Dictatorship of proletariat
6. The ideology of the working class
7. Revolutionary class struggle
Marx as a Person and his Humane Concern
Marx was born on May 5, 1818 in Germany. His father was a lawyer, and Marx also studied
jurisprudence. In early 19th century, feudalism had ended, and capitalism was in the offing.
Peasants and artisans were being ruined under the new system. Hence, class struggle, development
of the bourgeoisie democratic and national liberation movement were there in the wake of the
proletariat. Marx drew from Hegal, particularly from the Left Hegelians. In 1841, Marx received
doctorate. Thereafter, he started a movement against political reaction and obscurantism. He also
became the editor of a paper in 1842. His paper was banned in 1843. Marx married in 1843. At this
point, he started a critical study of Hegel’s philosophy of right. Before this he met Engels in 1842,
and again they met in Paris in 1984. Based on his understanding of the Hegelian philosophy, Marx

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