Social Inequalities: Marx, Weber, And Lenski

772 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Contribution of Emile Durkheim

For this essay, I will be examining four social theorists and explain their theories on social inequalities. The four theorists I will be covering are Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Gerhard Lenski. While they may not have had the same thoughts on social inequality, all of them heavily influenced how we view inequalities in today’s society. The first theorist was Karl Marx. He thought class struggle occurred among economic classes. Marx believed there were two classes. The people who govern the mean of production (the rulers) and the people who work the means of production (the ruled) (Seranu 15). While Marx believed every society needs both classes, ultimately the rulers and the ruled have a class conflict that results in the process starting again. Marx eventually broke down these classes into groups. The first group, the bourgeoisie, came to be the new rulers of the elite (Sernau 15). Their wealth was based on urban …show more content…

He believed Marx’s thoughts on how economics controlled the classes in society. Weber also felt that one’s social class is determined by one’s life chances (Sernau 19). While the amount of property one has is important so is authority and knowledge. Having power in the economic realm is called social class (Sernau 19). The amount of goods, opportunities, investments, and skills control the social class one belongs too. Prestige is the power one has in the social realm. The family name, clothing, residence, reputation all are a part of prestige (Sernau 19). Weber also felt that one’s “party” held power in the legal realm (Sernau 19). For example, a political party’s goal is to gain power through the legal realm. Weber’s definition of “party” can also include labor unions, student unions, political action groups, or social actions groups (Sernau 19). Basically, any group that is using the legal realm to gain power would be considered “parties” because they are striving for

Show More
Related

  • Social Stratification in 'Manifesto of the Communist Party' by Karl Marx and Max Weber's 'Class, Status and Party'

    478 Words  | 1 Pages

    Weber, however, argued that there were three parts to social. stratification: class, status, and power. He stated that class was relative. 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.

    Read More

  • Mead And Marx's View On Human Nature

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marx believes there is a true human nature, that of a free species being, but our social environment can alienate us from it. To describe this nature, he first describes the class conflict between the bourgeois and the proletariats. Coined by Marx, the bourgeois are “the exploiting and ruling class.”, and the proletariats are “the exploited and oppressed class” (Marx, 207). These two classes are separated because of the machine we call capitalism. Capitalism arises from private property, specialization of labor, wage labor, and inevitably causes competition.

    Read More

  • The Decline of Aristocracy in The Communist Manifesto

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bourgeoisie were the landowners, employers, and those who received capital in the society. They had other people work under them and controlled labor in order to increase personal capital. “Marx delineates his vision of history, focusing on the development and eventual destruction of the bourgeoisie, the dominant class of his day.”3 The Bourgeoisie came up with the idea to create a new social class known as the Proletariats, which were the laborers for the production of Bourgeoisie industry.

    Read More

  • Why The Ideas Of Karl Marx Were So Radical To Society

    744 Words  | 2 Pages

    To put an end to the ongoing struggle between social classes, Marx believed that a new form of government would have to be established, this he called Socialism. 4. He wanted to see the working class join together to fight the owners, for in order for a society to grow, people would need to begin working together.

    Read More

  • Mary Wollstonecraft Feminism Analysis

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    His strife was between the bourgeoisie and the proletariats. He believed that the proletariats were being exploited by the bourgeoisie through unfair production of good and the pay. In other words, the bourgeoisie owned and controlled the means of production while the proletariats own nothing but their right to sell their labor. In this way the bourgeoisie could pick what they want to pay the worker bee proletariats and could string them along at will. As time passed and technology advanced the proletariats were phased out of their jobs by newly created machines and technology. Therefore, the proletariats could be thrown out like trash depending on what the bourgeoisie wanted, without defense of the proletariats. Marx believed that as technology advanced, the proletariats were able to become educated and form unions against the bourgeoisie. As the proletariats grew they would become more united and be able to overpower their bourgeoisie

    Read More

  • Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel: The Relationship between Society and the Individual

    3473 Words  | 7 Pages

    Each of the four classical theorists Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel had different theories of the relationship between society and the individual. It is the objective of this paper to critically evaluate the sociological approaches of each theory to come to a better understanding of how each theorist perceived such a relationship and what it means for the nature of social reality.

    Read More

  • How Class Influences Identities

    393 Words  | 1 Pages

    Weber's theory also identified economic category as important in defining class structures, but rather than focusing on class divisions he focused on the individual and their opportunities. Weber picks out the significant thing here, that both classes will meet in a market. The ruling or privilege class as purchaser of labour and as a vendor. The working or vulnerable class as someone who must sell his services or starve.

    Read More

  • Social Inequality In The American Dream

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social class is a group of people who rank closely in property, prestige, and power. Within these social classes exist some properties of class level that are characteristic of their ranking. The first of these is property. Property consists of furniture, jewelry, bank accounts, and other materials that can be quantified into monetary value. (Henslin, 2014) Basically, they are things that can be quantified to add up in quantified value end up un a sum of monetary value. This value is termed wealth. This is different from income. Income is known as the flow of money. Prestige is the next characteristic looked at when determining social class. Prestige is the value which different groups of people are judged with. (Henslin, 2014) Different occupations within society offer varying levels of prestige. The final aspect looked at when determining class is power. Power is defined as the ability to exert your will within society. (Henslin, 2014) The reason to review this is because different classes of society all maintain these aspects at higher or lower degrees, with the upper tier having the

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Class Status Party By Max Weber

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    This review can be seen in the example of someone who owns a small, local business not being seen as belonging to the same class as someone who owns a nationwide corporation, despite both people owning property. They are not seen as belonging to the same class because the large corporation makes a greater impact on society than the small, local business, and generates a larger income. Those who do not own property are differentiated in the same way by Weber, except this time he analyzes them based upon what kinds of services they offer and if they themselves participate in receiving services. In his final piece about class, Weber mentions class struggle. Class struggles are where people in the same class situation react, in large numbers, in ways that are an advantageous way to materialize and achieve their interests. Weber calls the factors that bring about class struggles, and determine class situations, markets. There are three types of markets that he mentions; the labor market, the commodities market, and the capitalistic market. The labor market is where people sell labor for money, the commodities

    Read More

  • The Class Struggles of 18th and 19th Centuries in Europe

    1300 Words  | 3 Pages

    Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in order to give a voice to the struggling classes in Europe. In the document he expressed the frustrations of the lower class. As Marx began his document with "the history of all hitherto societies has been the history of class struggles" he gave power to the lower classes and sparked a destruction of their opressors.1 He argued that during the nineteenth century Europe was divided into two main classes: the wealthy upper class, the bourgeoisie, and the lower working class, the proletariat. After years of suffering oppression the proletariats decided to use their autonomy and make a choice to gain power. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century the proletariats were controlled and oppressed by the bourgeoisie until they took on the responsibility of acquiring equality through the Communist Manifesto.

    Read More

  • Marxist Theory, Power Elite Theory And Pluralist Theory

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marxist Theory, Power Elite Theory and Pluralist Theory demonstrates many various ways power is measured and how it causes inequality within society. Karl Marx was a major proponent of the Marxist Theory. Marx believed that society operated through a variety of social classes. Marx was mainly focused on the elite and the social classes who struggled in society due to finances (working class). Marx demonstrated how capitalism divides society into two separate social classes. Marx points to the wealthy as the social class that dominates with money and often overlooks the working class. The particular social class will have economic power over those who labor of good and services. Additionally, Marx had the understanding that the more the working

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Karl Marx and Max Weber

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marx’s perspective was not based on the conflict of ideas, but rather on the conflict of classes. This conflict is the results of a new mode of production. According to Marx, history would consist of epochs of modes of production. He states that these modes of production are: primitive communism, slave society, feudalism, capitalism, and then socialism and communism.

    Read More

  • Thomas Hobbes Absolute Government

    1057 Words  | 3 Pages

    Therefore, the formation of a class is likely to happen when members of that class become aware of their own exploitation as well as their conflict with another class (Bashar 1). In general, class is an economic group where economic inequality is the main element of struggle. Class struggle or class conflict is tension or antagonism in society due to the different groups having differing interests (Bashar 1). People are placed into similar groups within society primarily based on similar economic standing. Marxism’s philosophy is that there are two main classes of people: the bourgeoisie which control the capital and means of production, and the proletariat which provide the labor.

    Read More

  • Marx 's Theory Of Class Conflict

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Marx class is determined by property associations not by revenue or status. It is determined by allocation and utilization, which represent the production and power relations of class. Marx’s differentiate one class from another rooted on two criteria: possession of the means of production and control of the labor power of others. The major class groups are the capitalist also known as bourgeoisie and the workers or proletariat. The capitalist own the means of production and purchase the labor power of others. Proletariat is the laboring lower class. They are the ones who sell their own labor power. Class conflict to possess power over the means of production is the powerful force behind social growth.

    Read More

  • Pierre Bourdieu Social Class

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marx wrote extensively on class and he took a more linear approach to his class analysis claiming that: ‘the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles... The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms.it has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. (Marx,K.1848.

    Read More

More about Social Inequalities: Marx, Weber, And Lenski

Open Document