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Two great sociologists Karl Marx Max Weber had different view about stratification in the society. Weber's point of view has some differences and similarities to Marx's. Marx argues that any human society decided into of two combination of people or two classes that constantly oppose each. One class tend to be take dominant position over the other class. Marx said that these two classes have different relation to the industry that rule economy of society or to the "forces of production." Two opposite classes are "proletariat" and "burguassy." According to Marx, dominant class, burguassy, constantly exploit proletariat and create constant conflict or "class struggle" between them. He writes: "Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master and journey-man, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes" According to Marx dominant class control political and religious system of the society.
Marx argues that dominant class always put pressure on political and religion system or "superstructures" of the society to favor them. Marx gives examples that in capitalist system there are laws that favor capitalists or burguassy and make privet ownership legal. On other hand, in communists society there are laws that prohibit private ownership because dominant class are not burguassy. In my daily life I can see a lot of examples of "proletariat" and "burguassy" classes. For example Bill Get, CEO of Microsoft Corporation, is included in burguassy class because he owns the company and he gets profit but not necessarily work for it. People who work for the Microsoft are "proletariat." They do not own software that they created and they are paid a salary for their work.
According to Marx, I am proletariat and my boss is burguassy because I work for him and he owns the bussiness. Weber's view on stratification in the society is much complicated than Marx's. Marx's system of social stratification was based only on relation to economy. According to Weber there are three leve's of stratification: class, status and power. Weber's, class is defined by wealth and occupation.
He argues that people who can afford the same things who have similar or the same occupation are included in one class. For example owner of the store who is driving Mercedes and has 3 stores house has higher class than his worker who cannot afford such things. Weber's class defined by "position on the market" is similar to Marx who defined class by relation to forces of production. Status is not the same as the class. Weber refers status the style of life.
Rich or poor people from the different class who have the same interests can have same status and form status groups. There are some religious groups that can be considered status groups because they have same interest and way of life. They do not accept people from different religions thus people of different status. People of cooperative apartments also can be considered status group.
According to Weber status also is based on honor and respect. For example priest has higher status because of his honor then bussiness man, but businessman can have higher class based on his material things or money. Last level in the Weber's system of social stratification is power. He says that power is ability to control people. In the modern world power is often referred to the political power. Politicians often have great power over society but they can have less status and class than members of the society.
Marx's view on social stratification is different but have some similarities with Weber's. Weber also implies that people with the high class are more likely to have high status and a lot of power. He also says that it is not always true. Weber writes about three political systems where one of each element of stratification was most important.
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