Social Inequality: Is the unequal sharing of such social rewards as wealth, power, prestige.

All societies treat people who have certain characteristics differently from those who do not.
For example;
distinguishes between the old and the young and also between males and females. A society may treat
its members differently on such grounds as skin color, physical strength, religious belief, educational
achievement, or whatever other feature it consider important. The usual result of these distinction is
social inequality.

Social Stratification: Refers to the division of a society into layers or strata who occupants have unequal
access to social opportunities and rewards. (It is a system by which society ranks categories of people in
a hierarchy)

People in the top strata enjoy privileges that not available to other members of society

People in the bottom strata face obstacles that other members of society do not encounter.

In highly stratified society, social inequality is institutionalized, that is part of social structures and is
passed from one generation to the next. Certain individuals and groups exercise more influence,
command greater respect, and have greater access to goods and services from others do. Most people
accept inequality as the way things are.

Principles of Stratification:

It is a characteristic of society.

It persists over generations.

It is universal but variable.

It involves not just inequality but beliefs

Dimensions of Social Stratification:

The basis of all stratification is ranking the people to their possession of things that are scarce and
therefore highly prized. These scientific terms are CLASS, STATUS, POWER. It is according to these
dimensions that people are assigned a rank in society and relegated to a stratum with others who are
similarly ranked

Class: Is a large group of people who rank closely to one another in wealth, power, and prestige.

Wealth Is an element of social class consisting of property and income.

Property comes in many forms, such as buildings, animals, machinery, cars, stocks, bonds, businesses
and bank accounts.

Income Is money received as wages, rents, interest, royalties, or the proceeds from a business.
Weber cites three elements of social class, namely wealth, power, and prestige.

The three elements separate people into different lifestyles, give them different chances in life, and
provide them wit distinct ways of looking at the self and the world

Status: Is the degree of social esteem that an individual or group enjoys in society.

The second most important dimension of social stratification is status.

A status is a position in a society.

Everybody occupies a number of statuses ( position ) such as student, son, senator, teenager, and so on.

A person status determines where the individuals fits in society and he or she should relate to other
people.

For example; The status of mother, determines the persons basic relationships with the members; The
status of a bank manager determines the persons basic relationships with the employees, bank clients,
and other bank managers.

These is frequently an overlap between class and status, but the overlap does not always occur.

Some people may have high income and lack status and conversely,

Some have high status and lack substantial income.

Additional determinants of status are being born into high respected family, living in the right kind of
neighborhood, attending private preparatory schools, and belonging to exclusive country clubs among
others

Power: Is defined as the ability to carry out ones wishes in spite of resistance.

Personal Power Is the freedom of individuals to direct their own lives in the way they choose, without
much interference.

Social power Is the ability to make decisions that affect entire communities or even the whole society.

The third most important dimension of stratification is power.

It is the capacity to get other people to do one wants them to do, with or without their consent.

As applied to stratification, power can be divided into personal power, and social power.

Social power may be exercised legitimately, with the consent of the members of the society.

In this case it is called AUTHORITY.

Social power may also be exercised illegitimately, that is, without the official approval of society.
Organized crime, for instance, exercises power illegitimately.
Power is probably the most important dimension of stratification because it affects the manner in which
societys good and services are distributed.

It is deeply interwoven with the other dimensions, class and status.

High status individuals have little trouble attaining position of power, either in government, the
professions, or corporate and banking circles. In turn, those positions of power can control decision
making in such a way that events are favorable to them.

In traditional, non-industrial societies power is often held by a small elite, while the majority of the
people are relatively powerless.

In industrial societies, power is spread among many people, largely as a result of universal suffrage the
generally better living standards of the majority of the population.

System of Stratification:

Closed Stratification System Are those which have well-defined ranks and rather rigid boundaries that
are difficult or impossible for people to cross.

Open Stratification System Have ranks with less well- defined boundaries that may be crossed more
readily.

Forms of stratification vary which from one society to another according to the degree to which the
movement of people from one level to another is permitted or encouraged. At one extreme are closed
stratification systems.

Ascribed status, such as these based on race or ancestry, play important role in determining peoples
social position in closed stratification systems, and people usually remain in the same position
throughout their lives.

Open stratification systems, there are fewer barriers to advancement, and social position is determined
more by individual achievement or merit.

Achieved statuses that are based on factors like educational attainment are open in systems.

Stratification systems are never fully closed or fully open but vary between these two extremes. A sense
of variation possible in different stratification system can be gained by looking at two types of
stratification systems;

The relatively closed caste and more open class system.

Caste System: (A social structure in which classes are determined by heredity)

Is one where a society is divided into strata and ones status is determined by birth and is lifelong.

Endogamy Is marriage within ones own group, and prohibit intermarriage.

In a caste system, is a closed system where ones status is determined by birth and is lifelong. Someone
who is born into a low- status group will always have low status no matter how that person may
accomplish in life. The basis of a caste system is ascribed status. Achieved status can not change an
individuals place in this system.

Societies with this form of stratification try to make certain that the boundaries between castes remain
firm. They practice endogamy. To prevent contact between castes, they can develop elaborate rules
about ritual pollution, teaching that contact with inferior castes contaminates the superior caste.

For example; India, Based not on race but on religion. It has existed for almost three thousand years.
India has four main castes or varnas.The four main castes are subdivided into thousands of specialized
subcastes, or jati, with each jati performing a specific occupation.

Class System: (It is a system in which people are grouped on the basis of their social class and status )

Is an open form of stratification based primarily on economic structures, which may be subject to
change.

In class system, an individuals statuses usually depends on the occupation and income of the family
breadwinner so people sometimes more up or down the class system as their economic circumstances
improve or decline.

There are no formal restrictions against marriages between people from different classes. Class
membership, then, is an achieved status, one that depends to some extend on characteristics over which
the individual has gone control.

Almost all societies now have class system, although their actual shapes differ from one society to
another.

In predominantly agricultural societies there are usually two main classes; a small and wealthy class of
landowners, and a large and poor class of peasants.

In industrialized societies, There are usually three main classes; a small and wealthy upper class, a fairly
large middle class of professionals and other white collar workers, and large working class or less
skilled blue- collar workers.

Example; Great Britain has a class system that can be divided into a lower, middle, and upper class. A
little over half of the population is in the lower or working class. A tiny upper class, perhaps one percent
of the population, is powerful, highly educated, and extremely wealthy.

Vladimr Llyich Lenin ( 1870 1942 ) and Leon Trotsky ( 1879 1940 ) heeded Karl Marxs call for the
classes society. They led a revolution in Russia to bring this about. They and the nations that followed
their banner, never claimed to have achieved the ideal of communism, in which all contribute their labor
to the common good and receive according t their needs. Instead, they used the term socialism to
describe the intermediate step between capitalism and communism, in which social classes are
abolished but some individual inequality remains.

Social Mobility:

Is movement from one social status to another.

Intergenerational social mobility refers to change in social position occurring during a persons lifetime.

Intergenerational social mobility is the upward or downward social mobility of children in relation to
their parents.

Exchange mobility are changes in peoples social statuses as they exchange places with one another at
different levels of hierarchy.

Structural mobility are changes in peoples social statuses a result of changes in the structure of the
economy.

Example of Exchange mobility, high level incompetents may lose their jobs and fall to lower statuses,
while more competent people at lower level are promoted to higher statuses.

The amount of mobility depends on how closed or open the society is; in a closed system there is little
exchange mobility, but in an open system, there is potential for much more.

Example of structural mobility, in times of economic recession there is a general downward trend in
mobility as incomes shrink and workers are laid off.
College graduates, no matter keen they are to get goods and jobs, may find themselves driving cabs or
collecting unemployment benefits. In times of economic growth, on the other hand, there is an upward
trend in mobility as incomes rise and jobs are created. College graduates, even less promising ones, may
find many excellent jobs available for the asking.

The amount of this mobility depends on economic conditions; in a static economy there is structural
mobility, but in times of economic change there may be a good deal.

Slavery: It is a form of social stratification in which some people own other people