In any, the most democratic society, there is social inequality. Not all members of society can have equal access to public resources. Therefore, there is a stratification of society into separate steps, with a hierarchical relationship relative to each other. But what are the main reasons that a person belongs to a particular stratum?
There are many theories that a person belongs to a particular stratum. But all of them are based on approximately the same criteria: economic, political and professional. Economic ones depend on what place a person occupies in the results of the distribution of social income. Political on how an individual has access to power resources, what is his influence on political decision-making. Professional ones depend, firstly, on a person’s contribution to a social product, on the importance of his profession for society; and secondly, from the intellectual level, which is necessary for the performance of a particular type of professional activity.
On this basis, in modern society, it is customary to distinguish three main layers: higher, middle and lower. But these layers themselves are heterogeneous. In them, individual scientists also distinguish sublayers.
In order to better understand what social stratification in modern society depends on, we dwell in more detail on the criteria of modern sociology. The main criteria in it are: income, wealth, power, education and prestige.
A person’s income is determined by the number of new economic resources received over a certain period of time. Income can be in the form of wages, income from an annuity contract, social benefits, income from the results of intellectual work, creativity (fees), etc.
Wealth is determined by the amount of individual income accumulated. It may depend directly on income, if there are no other sources in the form of inherited or donated. Accumulated income can be in the form of cash (both real and virtual), and in the form of materialized money, in the form of movable and immovable property.
The level of human power is determined by the number of people whose activities it can influence. This amount can vary from only the person himself, his family, to the whole enterprise, or even the state.
The level of education is determined by what kind of education a person received:, secondary general. primary vocational, secondary special, higher, postgraduate. But here one more fact should be recognized. The level of education also depends on the intellectual abilities of the individual. And in some cases, even from the level of income, wealth. Moreover, the level of education itself does not always determine the level of education.
Prestige is determined by the attitude of society towards a place occupied by a person in a particular social class. And also to his professional affiliation, income level, level of education.
Summarizing all of the above, we can draw the following conclusion. All these criteria cannot unambiguously determine a person’s belonging to a particular stratum. For example, a person of an old, noble family, having a large income, wealth, may not have a postgraduate education, may be generally unemployed. And a person with a degree, a prestigious job, can have relatively low incomes. And such paradoxes are quite real for modern Russian society.
- The main criteria for stratification of society are described.
- Various approaches to the theory of stratification are considered.
