MARXIST THEORY OF STRATIFICATION

Question 1

What do they argue?

Answer 1

• The basis of all stratification systems is the private ownership of the means of production.
• Society is stratified into two basic social classes: the owners and the non-owners of the means of production. The proletariat have to work for wages to live as they do not own the means of production. The bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat by paying them less than the value of what they produce - this produces profit for the bourgeoisie and creates class conflict.
• The owning class is a ruling class and maintains power through what ALTHUSSER called:
  1. The repressive state apparatus; those institutions concerned with mainly repressive, physical means of keeping a population in line, such as the army, law, police, courts and prisons.
  2. The ideological state apparatuses - agencies that spread the dominant ideology e.g the family, religion, the ecuation system and the media.
• Marx predicted that the two basic classes would become more polarised (with the working classes becoming poorer and poorer) and a resulting conflict between classes would eventually lead to the working class overthrowing the bourgeoisie in a communist revolution, creating a new system in which the means of production would be owned by everyone. It would be a classless society, with no exploitation and no class conflict.

Question 2

Criticisms of marxist theory?

Answer 2

• It’s predictions of class conflict and revolution have not come true.
• The working class not got poorer.
• It over-emphasises social class as a source of inequality and conflict, and ignores other identities.
• There are more than two social classes e.g middle class

Question 3

MAIN WEAKNESSES OF MARXIST VIEW OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY?

Answer 3

1. The class structure today is more complex than the polarised view of Bourgeoisie versus proletariat.
2. Marxism is too economically deterministic. The links between capitalism and class with other forms of inequality e.g gender, ethnicity and age can sometimes seem quite tenuous.
3. The communist revolutions in Eastern Europe did not lead to greater equality and freedom as Marx suggested
4. Capitalism has proven to be a more resilient mode of production than Marx sugegsted. It has helped to raise living standards in society.

Question 4

STRENGTHS OF MARXIST VIEW OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY?

Answer 4

1. The proletarianisation of the middle classes supports the marxists idea of ‘class polarisation’. Braverman argues that many so called middle class workers have in reality been de-skilled.
2. As Marx predicted many small business owners (the petit bourgeoisie) have been driven out of business by increasingy powerful big businesses, further widening the gap between the two main classes
3. In the aftermath of the banking crisis, the state is making the poor pay for the economic problems caused by the capitalist class. The average guy on the street is getting poorer while the rich are still getting richer - linked to marx’s concept of immiseration.
   - The distribution of wealth and income within the UK is becoming as unequal as it was at the time Marx was writing e.g the poorest 20% own only 0.6% of the total wealth in the country.