INEQUALITY AND U.S. SOCIETY (original) (raw)
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In 1945 Davis and Moore, following an earlier formulation by Davis, proposed a functional theory of stratification that was intended to account for what they contended was the "universal necessity" for social inequality in any social order. Beginning with an article by Tumin in 1953, the Davis-Moore theory elicited regular analysis, commentary, criticism, and debate through the 1970s. Although professional work on the theory has largely ceased since the late 1980s, the Davis-Moore theory remains perhaps the single most widely cited paper in American introductory sociology and stratification textbooks and constitutes "required reading" in hundreds, if not thousands, of undergraduate and graduate courses throughout the United States. The present paper traces the history of the debate and attempts to explain the theory's longevity and vitality in the face of what has amounted to largely negative assessments by other sociologists over the preceding fifty years. In 1945, two young Harvard-trained sociologists, Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, published a short, seven-page article on social and economic inequality in the younger of the discipline's two most prestigious journals, the American SociologicalReview. Titled "Some Principles of Stratification, ''1 the article elicited no published commentary for a number of years. However, beginning in 1953 with the publication of Melvin Tumin's article entitled "Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis, ''2 the Davis and Moore article began to receive regular public treatment and attention within the discipline. No doubt Davis and Moore's willingness (and, one may say, eagerness) to join issue with Tumin contributed to the original article's increasing notoriety) Over time, "Some Principles of Stratification" became one of the most frequently cited-and negatively evaluated-papers within American sociology. Yet, although widely discredited on both logical and empirical grounds, the article remains a mainstay of conventional sociology and is even considered a "classic." How did this happen?
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