In Edward Shills’ view (Centre and Periphery, 1975), all societies engender status inequalities, and these inequalities reflect distance from the centre which represents the shared value standards. This echoes Emile Durkheim’s proposition that status represents a distance from “the sacred” – the symbolic representations of society. This link with the sacred gives strong legitimacy to status distinctions. Status group members reinforce these distinctions by claiming monopolies over certain privileges, titles, occupational roles and styles of dress.

The penetration of traditional status distinctions intro the fabric of modern society was the main theme of Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). Social esteem enjoyed by the upper strata, argued Veblen, did not depend on their wealth or power; it had to be earned through conventional social practices, in particular the avoidance of vulgar forms of labour, especially services, engagement in “vicarious leisure” and conspicuous consumption. Earning and cultivating esteem was a task pursued by families, rather than individuals.

Power

The most significant of the controversies that took place among sociologists and political scientists in the 20th century around of power concern, expressly or otherwise, concerns the definition of power offered at the beginning of the 20th century by Max Weber. In Economy and Society (1922), that definition characterizes power as “the chance of a [wo]man or a group of [wo]men to realize their own will in a communal [collective] action against the resistance of their who are participating in the action”.

In fact, some expressed or implied elements of this definition were not widely considered controversial. In particular, it was generally agreed that one should think of (social) power not as a substance but as a relationship – a point implied in Weber’s reference to both parties’ ‘participation’ in collective action. In other terms, power is not something to be held, so to speak, in one’s hand or pocket, but as something obtaining between two parties, such as that A may hold it vis-à-vis B, but not vis-à-vis C.

In other words, power is defined as the ability to carry out one’s wishes in spite of resistance. It is the ability to get other people to do what one wants them to do, with or without their consent. Stratification based on power is, in Weber’s view, essentially political rather than economic. In fact, Weber used the term political class or party to mean an elite, a group that is more powerful than other groups in society. Power is exercised in all social systems, from the simplest to the most complex.

As applied to stratification, power may be divided into personal power and social power. Personal power is the freedom of individuals to direct their own lives in a way they themselves choose, without much interference. Such freedom often goes with great wealth. Social power is the ability to make decisions that affect entire communities or even the whole society. Social power may be exercised legitimately, with the consent of the members of society. In this case, it is called authority. Parents, teachers and the government all represent different levels of authority. Social power may also be exercised illegitimately, that is, without the official and ethical approval of society.

Power is such an important dimension of stratification because it affects the manner in which society’s goods and services are distributed. It is deeply interwoven with the other dimensions such as class and status. High-status individuals have little trouble attaining positions of power, either in government, the professions or corporate and banking circles. In turn, those in positions of power can control decision making in such a way that events are favourable to them. In traditional, non-industrial societies, power is often held by a small elite, which the majority of people are relatively powerless. In industrial societies, however, power is spread among many people, largely as a result of universal suffrage and the generally better living standard of the majority of the population.