Page 60 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 4: Theories of Social Stratification-II

“Property” and “lack of property” are, therefore, the basic categories of all class situations. Price Notes
wars and competitive struggles exhibit both. The kind of property and the kind of services further
differentiate class situations, for example, in terms of class of rentiers and class of entrepreneurs, etc.
The kind of chance in the market is the decisive factor in determining class position of a given
actor. In fact, the “class situation” is ultimately the “market situation”. But “possession” could be
a decisive factor initially. The creditor-debtor relation becomes the basis of class situations. Monopoly
and plutocracy (rich class government) emerge from class struggles. “Slaves” are a status group.
Communal Action Flowing from Class Interest
Though “class” is created by economic interest involving “market”, yet the concept of “class
interest” is ambiguous. Because an individual’s ability may be high, average and low to qualify for
an action. And then “trade union” also may come in affecting the “class situation”. Such a situation
is of communal action.
Communal action refers to that action which is oriented to the feeling of the actors that they belong
together. Social action, on the other hand, is oriented to a rationally motivated adjustment of
interests. The rise of societal or even of communal action from a common class situation is by no
means a universal phenomenon. The class situation may be restricted to in its effects to the
generation of essentially similar reactions of “mass actions”. Amorphous communal action may
also emerge — murmuring on a given issue, or moral disapproval, or “slow down”. The class
situation implies :
1. the given distribution of property, and
2. the structure of the concrete recognizable economic order to ascertain a class situation. These
make a class situation transparent.
Types of Class Struggle
A class in itself does not entail a community. Nevertheless, class situations emerge only on the
basis of communalization (mobilization for common economic interests). The labour market and
the capitalist enterprise determine the class situation of the worker and the entrepreneurs. Thus,
the communal action is not basically action between members of the identical class. The existence
of a capitalist enterprise is pre-conditioned by a specific kind of “legal order”. Each kind of class
situation rests upon the power of property. “Status groups” hinder the strict carrying of the sheer
market principle. The examples of class struggle are : class struggles by peasants, artisans, etc., in
ancient times; and today competitive struggles, price wars, etc.
Status Honour
According to Weber, in contrast to classes, status groups are normally communities, generally of an
amorphous kind. Like a “class situation”, there is a “status situation”, characterizing social estimation
of honour, shared by a plurality. It may be knit to a class situation and vice versa. But status
honour need not necessarily be linked with a class situation. It normally stands in sharp opposition
to the pretensions of sheer property. Both propertied and propertyless people can belong to the
same status group, and frequently they do with very tangible consequences. In the long run, such
an equality may run quite precarious.
Guarantees of Status Stratification
Status honour is normally expressed by a specific style of life. Linked with this are restrictions on
social intercourse, which is not subservient to economic status. Status circle is evident through
marriages. Visits to streets, neighbourhoods, groups, etc., are examples of encircling of status
groups. Further, Weber observes that the development of status is essentially a question of
stratification resting upon usurpation. Such usurpation is the normal origin of almost all status
honour. Stability of a system of status stratification comes from legally sanctioned social order.

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