Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology, 11/e

Chapter Seven: Global Stratification

I. Systems of Social Stratification

A. Social stratification is the division of large numbers of people into layers according to
their relative power, property, and prestige. The four major systems of social
stratification are slavery, caste, estate, and class.
B. Slavery.
1. Initially, slavery was based on debt, punishment for violation of the law, or defeat
in battle.
2. Gerda Lerna notes that women were the first people enslaved through warfare.
They were valued for sexual purposes, reproduction, and their labor.
3. Slavery could be temporary or permanent and was not necessarily passed on to
one’s children.
4. The first form of slavery in the New World was bonded labor or indentured
service
5. Given the shortage of indentured servants, American colonists first tried to
enslave Indians and then turned to Africans, who were being brought to North
and South America by the British, Dutch, English, Portuguese, and Spanish.
6. When American slave owners developed beliefs to justify what they wanted and
to make slavery inheritable.
7. There is some debate as to whether or not slavery is still practiced in certain parts
of the world today.
C. In a caste system, status is determined by birth and is lifelong.
1. Ascribed status is the basis of a caste system.
2. Although abolished by the Indian government in 1949, the caste system remains
part of everyday life in India, as it has for almost 3,000 years.
3. South Africa’s caste system was called apartheid and based on the separation of
the races.
4. An American racial caste system developed in the United States when slavery
ended.
D. During the Middle Ages, Europe developed the estate stratification system consisting
of three groups, or estates.
1. The first estate was made up of the nobility, who ruled the land.
2. The second estate consisted of the clergy.
3. The third estate was made up of commoners, known as serfs.
4. Women belonged to the estate of their husbands.
E. A class system is a form of social stratification based primarily on the possession of
money or material possessions.
1. Initial social class position is based on that of one’s parents (ascribed status).
2. With relatively fluid boundaries, a class system allows for social mobility, or
movement up or down the social class ladder, based on achieved status.
F. On the basis of gender, people are sorted into categories and given differential access
to rewards.

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Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 12/e

II. What Determines Social Class?

A. According to Karl Marx, social class is determined by one’s relationship to the means
of production.
1. The bourgeoisie (capitalists) own the means of production; the proletariat
(workers) works for those who own the means of production.
2. Marx recognized the existence of other groups—farmers and peasants, a
lumpenproletariat, and self-employed professionals. \
3. As capital becomes more concentrated, the two classes will become increasingly
hostile to one another.
4. Class consciousness will develop and unite workers.
5. Marx believed that the workers would revolt against the capitalists, take control
of the means of production, and usher in a classless society.
B. Max Weber believed property, prestige, and power determine social class.
1. Property (or wealth).
2. Prestige.
3. Power is the ability to control others.
III. Why is Social Stratification Universal?
A. According to the functionalist view expressed by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore,
stratification is inevitable for the following four reasons:
1. Society must make certain that its important positions are filled;
2. Some positions are more important than others;
3. More important positions need to be filled by the more qualified people,
4. And these people must be offered greater rewards.
B. Melvin Tumin criticized the Davis and Moore thesis.
1. How the importance of a position is measured?
2. Society would be a meritocracy, a form of social stratification in which all
positions are awarded on the basis of merit.
3. Stratification is dysfunctional to many people, thus not functional.
C. Conflict theorists stress that conflict, not function, is the basis of social stratification
due to limited resources.
1. Society cannot exist unless it is organized; thus, there must be politics to get the
work of society done.
2. Marx believed that human history is the history of class struggle.
3. Modern conflict theorists stress that conflict between groups within the same class
compete for scarce resources.
D. Gerhard Lenski offered a synthesis between functionalist and conflict theories.
1. Functionalists are right when it comes to societies that have only basic resources.
2. Conflict theorists are right when it comes to societies with a surplus.
IV. How Do Elites Maintain Stratification?
A. Social stratification is maintained within a nation by elites who control ideas and
information, and use force.
1. In Medieval Europe, the divine right of kings ideology was developed to control
the commoners.
2. Elites also control information in order to maintain their position of power.
3. Technology, especially monitoring devices, helps the elite maintain its position.

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Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 12/e

B. Underlying the maintenance of stratification is control of social institutions, such as the

legal establishment, the police, and the military.

V. Comparative Social Stratification

A. Great Britain’s class system can be divided into upper, middle, and lower classes.
B. The ideal of communism, a classless society, was never realized in the former Soviet
Union.
VI. Global Stratification: Three Worlds
A. First World (industrialized, capitalistic nations), Second World (communist nations),
and Third World (any nations that didn’t fit the other categories). Revised categories:
“Most Industrialized,” “Industrializing,” and “Least Industrialized.”
B. The Most Industrialized Nations (U.S., Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany,
Switzerland, and other countries of Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New
Zealand) are capitalistic, although variations exist in economic systems.
1. These nations have only 16 percent of the world’s population, but have 31 percent
of the world’s land.
C. The Industrializing Nations include the former Soviet Union and its satellites in
Eastern Europe.
1. These nations account for 16 percent of the world’s population and 20 percent of
the land.
D. In the Least Industrialized Nations of the world, most people live on farms or in
villages with low standards of living.
1. These nations account for 49 percent of the earth’s land and 68 percent of the
world’s population.
E. Classifying the nations of the world into these three categories creates certain
problems.

VII. How Did the World’s Nations Become Stratified?

A. Colonialism focuses on how the nations that industrialized first got the jump on the rest
of the world.
1. With profits generated by the Industrial Revolution, industrialized nations built
powerful armaments and fast ships and then invaded weaker nations.
2. Powerful European nations would claim a colony and then send their
representatives in to run the government; the United States chose to plant a
corporate flag, letting the corporations dominate the territory’s government.
3. The Most Industrialized Nations created states disregarding tribal or cultural
considerations.
B. According to world system theory as espoused by Immanuel Wallerstein, countries are
politically and economically tied together.
1. There are four groups of interconnected nations: (1) core nations, where
capitalism first developed; (2) semi-periphery (Mediterranean area), highly
dependent on trade with core nations; (3) periphery (eastern Europe), mainly
limited to selling cash crops to core nations, with limited economic development;
(4) external area (most of Africa/Asia) left out of growth of capitalism, with few
economic ties to core nations.
2. Capitalist dominance results from relentless expansion.

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Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 12/e

3. Globalization has been speeded up because of new forms of communication and

transportation.
C. John Kenneth Galbraith argued some nations remained poor because of a way of life
based on traditional values and religious.
D. Most sociologists prefer colonialism and world system theory.
1. The culture of poverty theory places the blame on the victim.
VIII. Maintaining Global Stratification
A. Neocolonialism is the economic and political dominance of the Least Industrialized
Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations.
1. Michael Harrington asserts that the Most Industrialized Nations control the Least
Industrialized Nations because they control markets, set prices, and so on.
B. Multinational corporations contribute to exploitation of the Least Industrialized
Nations.
C. The new technology favors the Most Industrialized Nations, enabling them to maintain
their global domination.
D. Global stratification has a profound impact on each person’s life including access to
material possessions, education, and even longevity.

IX. Strains in the Global System

A. The structure of the global system is under strain at all times. This strain can range
from minor threats to the current social order, to large historical shifts that can have a
major impact across the globe.

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