Social stratification is the ranking of members of society in a way that some of its members are regarded as superior and others as inferior. This theory is certainly debated in present time and was debated as farback as 1776 when Karl Marx presented his theory in his “Manifesto ofthe Communist Party”. In the 1880’s, Max Weber combatted that documentin his own “Class, Status and Party.”Karl Marx believed that social standing or rank was based solely onclass position. For example, an owner of a business was regarded far abovea worker in that same business. Class position would also influence theamount of political power one had as well as the prestige that one enjoyed.Weber, however, argued that there were three parts to socialstratification: class, status and power. He stated that class was relative to how much money a person had and how much property that person owned.Status was split into two categories, “honor and respect”, and style of life,which included mannerisms, the foods and clothes one used, the manner in which a person spoke, and the neighborhood in which one lived. Thiscan be applied to today’s world; wearing so called designer labels such asPolo and Donna Karan and driving a BMW would indicate a higher styleof life than wearing J.C. Penny or driving a Kia. In today’s society, the Keith Page 2people living a higher style of life usually shy away from those of a lower economic status. You do not often encounter children from wealthy Manhattan families playing with children from Harlem. The third partof Weber’s theory on social stratification was power, which Weber defined as the chances of having other people do what you want them to do regardlessof their own wishes.Marx would not have argued with Weber about the three factorsbeing in existence; however, he probably would state that the class of the person wou...
