SOCIAL INEQUALITIES Essay Lazar Ivanovic (original) (raw)
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Critical Sociology, 1999
What is the place of power in society? What is the relationship between class and power? Answers diVer, as is to be expected, given the obvious signi cance of class and power to the evaluation of a given society. The question itself, however, appears simple and straightforward enough. Ideological biases apart, what seems to be at issue is the famous question of scienti c method, of what is the most adequate method to answer the question. 1 But is the question really so clear and simple? From what we know about "paradigms" (Kuhn) and "problematics" (Althusser) of science is it very likely that, for example, a proletarian revolutionary and critic of political economy (Marx), a German academic historian and sociological follower of Austrian marginalism (Weber), a descendant of JeVersonian democracy (Mills), an admirer of contemporary liberal economics (Buchanan-Tullock, Parsons), or an adherent of some of the ruling political ideas of present-day USA (Dahl, Giddens[ 2 ]), would be concerned with the same problem and ask the same question-even when they use the same words? Leaving subtler points and distinctions aside we can distinguish at least three diVerent major approaches to the study of power in society. The rst and most common one we might call the subjectivist approach. With Robert Dahl it asks: Who governs?, 3 or with William DomhoV: Who rules America?, 4 or in the words of a British theorist of strati cation, W.G. Runciman: "who rules and who is ruled?", 5 or in the militant pluralist variant of Nelson Polsby: "Does anyone at all run this community?" 6 This is a subjectivist approach to the problem of power in society not in the same sense as "subjective" in the so-called subjective conceptions of strati cation, which refer to strati cation in terms of subjective evaluation and esteem, in contrast to strati cation in terms of, say, income or education. It is a subjectivist approach in the sense that it is looking for the subject of power. It is looking, above all, for an answer to the question, Who has power? A few, many, a uni ed class of families, an institutional elite of top decision-makers, competing groups,
The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2021
Power is the ability to realize one's will in spite of resistance from others. Max Weber argued that three types of social resources – distributed on the basis of class (economic), status (sociocultural), and party (political) – could be employed to exert power. Karl Marx had earlier asserted the primacy of class, defined as a person's relationship to the means of production, but Weber complicated this picture through an analysis of the ways that social, cultural, and political considerations could both deepen and subvert class stratification. The global spread of democracy and capitalism initially increased social mobility and dispersed power more widely, including to groups that lacked economic resources but wielded power derived from prestige or the support of political organizations. In modern societies, however, elites have increasingly been able to parlay their economic advantages into cultural and political influence, renewing the interlocks between these spheres of power.
2020
No society is classless or without strata. Stratification is part and parcel of social life. Every society defines a means of categorising each person into a particular social group. The placement of each individual in turn determines his value, as defined by the larger society; hence, the greater role of society in defining every person’s value. Differences in values and statuses of individual engender stratification in the society. If social stratification affected only such matters as who gets elected as President or who becomes the Chief Executive Officer, separate chapter might not be dedicated to its discussion. But social stratification does much more: It results in some members of society benefiting greatly and others suffering. Most societies of the world are organised so that their institutions systematically distribute benefits and burdens unequally among different categories of people (Hughes & Kroehler, 2008). Social arrangements are not neutral, but serve and promote t...
An analysis on the variations of the concept of power in the political and social environment
International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 2019
The concept of power acquires different meanings according to the dimension, the historical cut and the circumstances that are being analyzed. Power has been characterized as the base of state domination over civil society and individuals. However, the concept of power cannot be reduced to a univocal sense, because it also occurs in interpersonal relationships and social micro-structures. This article reviews the literature on the subject from the works of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Arendt, Foucault, Bobbio and Bauman, highlighting the various configurations and manifestations of power, mitigating its centralization at the state instance and extending to other dimensions of society.
The distribution of power within the community: Classes, Stände, Parties
This is our first translation of Max Weber's "Class, Status, Party." It was published in the Journal of Classical Sociology in 2010. We are quite proud of the translation, and believe that it is better than earlier versions. However, we have since modified it and published a better version in our book "Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society" (2015), from Palgrave.
SOCIAL CLASSES AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Bangladesh is a fast-changing society. Within a span of little more than four decades the so called "Bottomless basket" has transformed into a Low Middle-Income country and is on the way to graduating from Less Developed Country. Economic growth has also affected the polity and society, unfortunately at a price. Society is now more unequal than ever before and trends of authoritarianism and hegemony of the stronger classes are ever more noticeable. Social Class predates the exposure to sociological analysis and constructs like concepts of Social Stratification, Status, Power and how they affect Social Change. Understanding the concept of Social Class is critical for the expose of the exploitation-authoritarianism nexus. The aggression of Pakistani ideology and their attempts at imposition of Pan Islamic and Pakistani cultural and literary tradition upon the Bengalis strengthened the convictions of the Basic Structure and Super Structure dialectics and contradictions that in turn brought the importance Economics and Sociology together. This term paper focuses on Social Change that the changing Class and Stratification patterns bring about. It includes systematic and research-based writings on the topic is along with the prognosis of our society based on historical as well as empirical facts and data.