What is social stratification, and how do the three major systems of stratification compare?

CHAPTER REVIEW Chapter 7
Use these questions and answers to check how well you’ve achieved the learning objectives set out at the beginning of this chapter.
LO1 What is social stratification, and how do the three major systems of stratification compare?
Social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of large social groups based on their control over basic resources. People are treated differently based on where they are positioned within the social hierarchies of class, race, gender, and age. Stratification systems include slavery, caste, and class. Slavery, an extreme form of stratification in which people are owned or controlled by others, is a closed system. The caste system is also a closed one in which people’s status is determined at birth based on their parents’ position in society. The class system, which exists in the United States, is a type of stratification based on ownership of resources and on the type of work that people do.
LO2 How did Karl Marx view social class and stratification?
Marx viewed social class as a key determinant of social inequality and social change. For Marx, class position and the extent of our income and wealth are determined by our work situation, or our relationship to the means of production. Marx stated that capitalistic societies consist of two classes—the capitalists and the workers—and class relationships involve inequality and exploitation.
LO3 What is Max Weber’s multidimensional approach to social stratification?
Weber emphasized that no single factor (such as economic divisions between capitalists and workers) was sufficient for defining the location of categories of people within the class structure. Weber developed a multidimensional concept of stratification that focuses on the interplay of wealth, prestige, and power.
LO4 What are the key characteristics of social classes in the United States?
No broad consensus exists about how to characterize the class structure in this country. Sociologists have developed two models of the class structure: One is based on a Weberian approach, the other on a Marxian approach. In the Weberian-based approach, social classes are based on three elements: (1) education, (2) occupation of family head, and (3) family income. This approach to class structure consists of the upper class, the upper-middle class, the middle class, the working class, the working poor, and the underclass. Contemporary Marxian models examine class in terms of people’s relationship to others in the production process.
LO5 What is the difference between income inequality and wealth inequality?
Income is the economic gain derived from wages, salaries, income transfers (governmental aid), and ownership of property. In 2014 the wealthiest 20 percent of U.S. households received more than half (51.2 percent) of the total income “pie,” while the poorest 20 percent of households received slightly more than 3 percent of all income. Wealth includes property such as buildings, land, farms, houses, factories, and cars, as well as other assets such as bank accounts, corporate stocks, bonds, and insurance policies. Wealth is even more unevenly distributed than income.
LO6 What are three important consequences of inequality in the United States?
The stratification of society into different social groups results in wide discrepancies in income and wealth and in variable access to available goods and services. People with high income or wealth have greater opportunity to control their own lives. They can afford better housing, more education, and a wider range of medical services. People with less income have fewer life chances and must spend their limited resources to acquire basic necessities.
LO7 What are the characteristics of the U.S. poor based on age, gender, and race/ethnicity?
Age, gender, and race tend to be factors in poverty. Children have a greater risk of being poor than do the elderly, and women have a higher rate of poverty than do men. Although whites account for approximately two-thirds of those below the poverty line, people of color account for a disproportionate share of the impoverished in the United States.
LO8 How do functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives on social inequality compare?
Functionalist perspectives view classes as broad groupings of people who share similar levels of privilege on the basis of their roles in the occupational structure. According to the Davis–Moore thesis, stratification exists in all societies, and some inequality is not only inevitable but also necessary for the ongoing functioning of society. The positions that are most important within society and that require the most talent and training must be highly rewarded. Conflict perspectives on class are based on the assumption that social stratification is created and maintained by one group (typically the capitalist class) in order to enhance and protect its own economic interests. Conflict theorists measure class according to people’s relationships with others in the production process. Unlike functionalist and conflict perspectives that focus on macrolevel inequalities in societies, symbolic interactionist views focus on microlevel inequalities such as how class location may positively or negatively influence one’s identity and everyday social interactions. Symbolic interactionists use terms such as social cohesion and deference to explain how class binds some individuals together while categorically separating out others.