Stratification Flashcards
Condition in which no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist
Social equality
Two-directional relationship following a pattern in which an original statement or thesis is countered with an antithesis leading to a conclusion that united the strengths of the original position and the counterarguments
Dialectic
Sees the emergence of private property, the idea that a person has the right to own something, as the primary source of social ills
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Argues that human populations grow geometrically while our ability to produce food increases arithmetically; theory suggests that a rising number of people on planet will eventually use up all the available resources and bring about mass starvation and conflict
Thomas Malthus
Viewed history in terms of a mater-slave dialectic
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Idea that everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game are the same for everyone
Equality of opportunity
Society of commerce in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive
Bourgeois society
Idea that everyone should have an equal starting point
Equality of condition
Idea that each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the game
Equality of outcome
Notion that when more than one person is responsible got getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight
Free rider problem
Politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility
Estate system
Religion-based system of stratification characterized by no social mobility
Caste system
Economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive, oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility
Class system
Working class
Proletariat
Capitalist class
Bourgeoisie
Idea that people can occupy locations in the class structure that fall between the two “pure” classes
Contradictory class locations
System of stratification based on social prestige
Status hierarchy system
System of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leader who broadly hold power in society
Elite-mass dichotomy system
Society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement
Meritocracy
Individual’s position in a stratified social order
Socioeconomic status
Money received by a person for work, from transfers, or from returns on investment
Income
Family’s or individual’s net worth (total assets - debt)
Wealth
Term for the economic elite
Upper class
Term commonly used to describe those individuals with non manual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line
Middle class
Movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society
Social mobility
Mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economy
Structural mobility
Mobility in which if we hold fixed the changing distribution of jobs, individuals trade jobs not one-to-one but in a way that ultimately balances out
Exchange mobility
