Social Stratification Essay, Research Paper

In Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, both authors believe that society had rapidly splitting into only two classes: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat as result of a long historical process and social revolutionary of machineries and large scale productions. Marx and Engels narrowed down the social and class stratification as two classes, and as two oppositions: the bourgeoisie as the oppressor, and the proletariat as the oppressed. The economic powers of the bourgeoisie led to their political empowerment, and economic power is the only sort of power that exists in particular societies. As Marx and Engels described, the proletariat are the workers of the bourgeois. In Class, Status, Party by Max Weber, Weber opposed that economic power is not the only sort. Power may have some other basis besides the economy, and power may be based on law and other factors. Power does not require economic, and Weber believes that not all power, however, entails social honor is rather an additional factor that enhances the chance to hold power or honor; but it cannot always secure them.

To Marx and Engels, many societies consist of only two classes, the Bourgeois and the proletariat, the owners of the means of production, and those who don’t own anything but sell their labor. In Weber’s three categories of class, status and party suggesting that none of the categories of class is in every situation. Sometimes certain parties are based on class or status, and sometimes any empowerment may make impacts and influence the political, economic, and the social situations. Weber believes that class, status groups, and parties, it must be said in general that they necessarily presuppose a comprehensive societalization, and especially a political framework of communal action, within which they operate.