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SOCIAL STRATIFICATIONS- THE CLASS SYSTEM
Shreya Chakraborty; Roll
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Human society is not homogeneous but heterogeneous
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Thus attaining equality is not possible in society
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Variations in the Possession, Qualities and Performance of an
individual are the main causes of differentiation to occur
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This varies from one to
another and from time to time
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It refers to the capability of an individual for
accomplishing a given task, within a period of time
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Now this task can be anything
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All the above three, that is, Possession, Qualities and Performance are inter-related
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Here accomplishment of a
task can refer to establishing one’s self firmly in this society, so that he or she can avoid the
harms of societal stratifications
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Having good qualities helps one in boosting one’s performance
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As defined by Gisbert,’social stratification is the permanent division of society into groups of
categories linked with each other by the relationship of superiority and subordination
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Characteristics of Social stratification:
● It is ancient- societal stratifications have an age old history
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No society is devoid of this phenomenon
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● It is consequential- that is, all societal differentiation has some outcomes or consequences
that are attached with it
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● It brings a kind of stability in the society
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And a society
devoid of competition cannot progress or advance
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2) The Functionalist Theory
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Here
economic factors became responsible for formation of different CLASSES in society
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The Functionalist Theory rejected conflict theory, and stated that the modes of production
only facilitated social stratification, but did not originate it
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For example, for a society to survive, it requires that a part of the population be
engaged in food production activities, so that the rest of the population do not starve to death
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Now, the ones involved in food production activities, may not have the skill
or time to even maintain the law and order
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This was the main concept behind Functionalist
Theory, which emphasized that stratifications came into being due to functional necessity of
the social system
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Class SystemSocial class is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on models
of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories
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Nature and characteristics of a class1) It is a status group
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3) It is a universal and de-facto group- it is universal, since a class system is maintained
in all corners of the world, due to its inherent economic nature
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4) There is an element of prestige and stability in the group- this element of prestige and
stability is attained due to the function that a person of that group performs, and the
rank he or she is attributed to because of the function
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Movement up and down the hierarchy is not
flexible, and dependent upon one’s economic status
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Feudalism is a grouping of legal and
military customs, prevalent in medieval Europe, which flourished between the 9th and 15th
centuries, or any similar grouping of legal and military customs
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Ranked from the highest to the lowest class as- Kings, Nobles/Lords, Knights and Peasants at
the bottom most layer and maximum in strength
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Nobles wanted security of maintaining control over their far reaching
kingdoms, and peasants wanted security from invaders
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He gave large portions of his land (fiefs/manors) to his direct underlings (lords),
who in turn paid him homage
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Under the knights were the peasants, or the lower class
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At par with the king or sometimes above him also would be the Pope (religious head) and the
church leaders
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The peasants believed that the harder they served the church, the
more money they paid to the church; their after-life would be that much better
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This type of symbiosis between the church and the king

kept them both with an exceptional amount of money, whereas the peasants would sometimes
starve to death
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It was the basic requirement for the society to survive and be stable
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Because the wealth only flowed between the upper classes, and
rarely trickled down to the lower strata, distinctions in the society became very prominent
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They usually wield the greatest political power
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In others, only people born into certain aristocratic
bloodlines are considered members of the upper class
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If a lower class individual suddenly gains enormous
amount of wealth he can readily become a member of the upper class
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Middle Class:
Formation of the middle class people came from the original peasants group
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Formation of this
middle class came about during the industrial revolution
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It included those who were below the middle class
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Lower class refers to those employed in
low-paid jobs with very little economic security
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Marx's work in
economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labour and its relation to
capital, and subsequent economic thought
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Whereas Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber (21 April 1864 – 14 June 1920) was a
German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist whose ideas influenced social
theory, social research, and the entire discipline of sociology
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Karl Marx thought social class to be a combination of Objective and Subjective Criteria
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It includes class consciousness,
class solidarity and class identification
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It may
include wealth or income, family or kinship, location of residence, occupation, level of
education, physical traits, etc
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These two broad groups had the relationship of dominance and subordination
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Marx believed that stratification would only disappear along with capitalism and private
property, Weber believed that the solution lay in providing "equal opportunity" within a
competitive, capitalist system
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Weber noted that contrary to Marx's theories, stratification was based on more than simply
ownership of capital
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Three fold class classification for India:
The working classes are the only productive classes in Indian society and are defined by the
fact that they produce the economic surplus in the following specific sense: the income that
accrues to this class, which is equal to the value of its labour-power, is lower than the value
added by the use of that labour power during any period of time (say a year)
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e
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The first qualification relates to the fact that the NCEUS defines the unorganized workers to
include almost all of the agricultural sector; hence we must exclude the following two rural
classes from the NCEUS definition of the unorganized workers: (a) rich farmers and
landlords, and (b) middle peasants
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, the highly skilled workers, the professionals, the managers, and all the employees of the
State sector
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At the other pole of Indian society resides the dominant, or ruling, classes
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For historical and structural reasons, the ruling class combine in India has
been, and still is, internally heterogeneous and consists of the following three elements: (1)
the industrial bourgeoisie, (2) the rich farmers and landlords, and (3) the professionals (Stateelite, i
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, the top-level managers of PSUs, the top-level officers of the bureaucracy, the
police, the army and the judiciary, and the top-level managers and professionals in the private
sector)
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Lying between these two poles, the productive and the non-productive poles, is what we
might call the “middle class” which is defined by the following two characteristics:

(1) this class is the recipient of a part of the economic surplus, i
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, the total compensation
earned by the middle-class is higher than the value of its labour power (i
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, the cost of
producing and reproducing the labour power); and
(2) the middle class is crucial for the reproduction of the existing social relations in India
which is what fetches it the extra income, i
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, the income above the value of its labour power,
in the form of rent from the ruling classes
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The dominant element in the ruling class combine is the Industrial Bourgeoisie, which
emerged and grew under the long shadow of British colonialism
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A significant portion of the industrial bourgeoisie have been, and continues to be,
organized along family lines, with the Tatas and the Birlas being the most prominent
historical examples
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89

11
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26

21
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85

67
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The Brahmin, The Kshatriya, The Vaishya and The Shudras were initially created for
carrying out different roles in the society, which was necessary for its smooth running
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R
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In todays modern world, mainly three distinct classes are
seen- upper, middle and lower divided by the amount of wealth you have
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Class structure in
ancient times

Very strict
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People with new
hard earnes
money were
looked down
upon

Feudal
system
and
modern
social
structure
kind of
similar
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Mobility between
different strata much
more easier
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Class structure of today

BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://sanhati
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Daily
Mail
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Retrieved 7 December 2012
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(The key statement of
class conflict as the driver of historical change)
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d
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Max Weber; Hans Heinrich Gerth; Bryan S
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From Max Weber:
essays in sociology
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Princeton University
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"
“The Class Structure Of The Advanced Societies”, Antony Giddens, Harper and Row
Publishers, 1975
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A
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d
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