Social stratification

Social stratification of society is a hierarchical organization and stratification of society into several strata (strata), a set of social institutions and the relationship between them. Strata are numerous groups of people who differ in the structure of society in their position.

According to scientists, social stratification is based on social and natural inequality of people. In this case, the criteria for the arising inequality are interpreted differently by different authors.

Thus, according to K. Marx, the basic factor is the level of income and ownership of property. M. Weber added to these provisions the public prestige and belonging of the individual to power, politics. According to the theory of social stratification Pitirim Sorokin, at the heart of the division lies the uneven distribution of privileges and rights, duties and responsibilities in society. In his opinion, public space has other criteria for differentiation. So, division can be made by occupation, citizenship, religious affiliation, nationality and so on.

Historically, social stratification is formed with the emergence of society. With the emergence of the first states, the stratification becomes tougher, but later on, against the background of social development, gradually softens.

Sociology distinguishes four basic types of division of society: caste, slavery, classes, estates. The first three species are characteristic of closed societies, and the latter kind refers to an open society.

Social stratification first manifested itself in antiquity, in the period of the onset of slavery. There are two forms of this inequality: the classical (the slave does not possess any rights and is the property of the owner) and the patriarchal (the slave empowers the rights of the younger member in the family). Slavery was based on the use of direct violence. Groups of people were divided by the absence or presence of their rights.

The second system of separation should be classified as a caste system. Caste is a public group in which membership is born by birth. In life, it is impossible to move from one group to another. To do this, you must be born again. This social stratification is common in India. In this state the society is divided into four main castes:

- priests (brahmanas);

- merchants (vaisyas);

- soldiers (ksatriyas);

- workers, artisans, peasants (sudras).

There are also "untouchables". They do not belong to any caste and are in the lowest position in society.

To the third stratification structure should be classified estates. Estates are defined as groups with legally binding duties or laws and rights inherited. As a rule, in society there are classes not privileged and privileged. Thus, in the West European society, the clergy and the nobility belonged to the second category. Until 1917 in Russia, apart from the unprivileged peasants and the privileged clergy and nobility, a semi-privileged category (Cossacks, for example) was singled out.

To another system of division of society is the class inequality. According to Lenin's definition, classes are numerous groups that differ in their position in a particular structure of social production . Separation is carried out in relation to production facilities (more formalized and enshrined legislatively), on the role in the organization of labor in society, therefore, by methods of obtaining and the volume of the share of the public good.

In modern society, in a broad sense, specialists distinguish three levels of stratification: the lower, the higher and the middle. In countries with developed economies, the average level prevails, giving stability to society.