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Assesses two theories & applies them to socioeconomic stratification & impact of race, ethnicity & gender in U.S.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Assesses two theories & applies them to socioeconomic stratification & impact of race, ethnicity & gender in U.S.
Paper Introduction:
This research will examine the ability of Marxian and Weberian conceptions of class to explain patterns of socioeconomic stratification in the U.S., with reference to the roles and interplay of race, ethnicity, and gender in shaping patterns of class stratification in the U.S. The research will set forth the conceptions of class held by Marx and Weber, respectively, and then discuss how each theorist's view of class accounts for social and economic divisions within the American social structure.
Marxian ideology holds that throughout history there has been a constant struggle, manifested in interclass struggle, between individual experience and social structures that shape that experience: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" (Marx, Manifesto 50). The strug
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The work ethic has variable consequences for variable groups.Demographics of higher wealth and higher education tend to correlate withwhite and male European culture in the U.S. New York: Oxford U P, 1946. "Observers Agree That, for a Long Time, Jury Knew What It Wanted." Washington Post, 3 October 1995: A1 .Gerth, H.H., and Mills, C. Weber sees the economic factors of societyas part of a complex overall social picture shaped by capitalism, growth oftechnology, and the Protestant work ethic, which entailed such concepts asmaterial enterprise and a life of work (or "life's work") meant to counterthe Catholic ethic of doctrinal authority. Ed. Bittersweet Encounter: The Afro- American and the American Jew. But access may be unequal, and Weber's view of Westerncapitalistic rationality is (Protestant 35) that there is concentration ofcapital and industry among sectarian Protestants in part because of thebreak from the "magic" or "spirituality" (and hierarchy) of the CatholicChurch, and in part because of Protestantism's own version of authority;Weber cites "devotion to labour in the calling [which] . 45-74.MacKinnon, Catherine A. But their complex and multifaceted theoriesappear relevant to understanding patterns of class stratification in theU.S. The struggles are shaped by the relative position of theworking class and bourgeoisie, identified with mercantilist-industrialinterests that control the means or relations of industrial production(Marx, Grundrisse 227), frequently referred to simply as capital.Oppression is embedded into the very fact of social rank. The term most commonly associated with Weber's view of socialstructure is rationalization, or rationalism, that process whereby asociety evolves away from a world explained by superstition and emotiontoward social organization. Justice and administration can fulfil this function only if they assume an informal character to a far-reaching extent (Weber, "Bureaucracy" 22 -1). Both Marx and Weber are concerned about the relationships of dominantand subordinate social groups. Gerth and C.W. Either interpretation gives an accountof actions in terms of socioeconomic stratification. . While thisis said to be a significant improvement over the .57:1. Indeed, jurydemographics were in the propertyless underclass (Brazil B1) whoseexperience of equality before the law could not be presumed as a socialfact. 7-63.Osofsky, Gilbert. Oppressive economic conditionsare linked to sociopolitical democratic activity by the oppressed to"level[] . Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law. Indeed, any exceptions wouldseem to prove the rule. of a fundamental and critical underpinning of thewhole [it] envision[s]" (49), which analyzes women (as Marx analyzesworkers) "as a social group, not in individualist, naturalist, idealist,moralist, voluntarist, or harmonist terms" (6 ). Ed. The Communist Manifesto. 3. Marxian ideology holds that throughout history there has been aconstant struggle, manifested in interclass struggle, between individualexperience and social structures that shape that experience: "The historyof all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" (Marx,Manifesto 5 ). Grundrisse. "Razed Hopes: Korean Americans Struggle to Rebuild After Riots." Far Eastern Economic Review 1 October 1992: 26-7.Fisher, M. Ed. By Karl Marx. Consider the situation inNew York City, historically plagued with Jewish charges of blackantisemitism vis-à-vis black charges of Jewish control of rental propertyin black neighborhoods (Weisberg and Stein 41; Osofsky 45 et passim). the governed" in context of "opposition to the ruling andbureaucratically articulated group" (Weber, "Bureaucracy" 226). Martin Nicolaus. The researchwill set forth the conceptions of class held by Marx and Weber,respectively, and then discuss how each theorist's view of class accountsfor social and economic divisions within the American social structure. And, after Marx, the fact that minority races are by and largeidentified with the economic underclass would not be inconsistent with anexplanation of why a low-rent jury could acquit a high-rent defendant, iffrom the jury's point of view jury nullification was identified less withthe defendant per se than with the solidarity of powerless people against asocial system that, as the defendant's lawyer cleverly emphasized, hadhistorically oppressed them. Talcott Parsons. . 3. . Grundrisse. Rationalism is not to be equated withreasonableness and justice as a moral category, but rather "measurednegatively in terms of the degree to which magical elements of thought aredisplaced, or positively by the extent to which ideas gain in systematiccoherence and naturalistic consistency" (Gerth and Mills 51). Gendered socialanalysis that is consistent with Marxist theory is exemplified by suchcommentators as MacKinnon, who likens her method to Marxism because it is atheory of "totality . Controversy over the acquittal in the notorious O.J. Another view of the connection between Marxism and genderedinterpretations of social structure can be seen in the discourse offeminism, which is itself divided in its social theory. . Weber refers to the tension between equality before thelaw and social differences based on connections between the bureaucraticapparatus of society and relative privileges of various groups, suggestingthat the more tenuous the connection, the more likely the status isunderprivileged (Weber, "Bureaucracy" 224). At the time ofacquittal the defendant was far from propertyless, which suggests that thevariable of economic class overrode the variable of race. so irrational from the standpoint of purely eudaemoninistic self-interest" (Weber, Protestant 78). "Jury Urged to Free Simpson as Act of Courage, Social Justice." Los Angeles Times 29 September 1995: A1.Nicolaus, Martin. .. "Acquit Simpson and Send Police a Message, Cochran Urges Jury." Los Angeles Times 28 September 1995: A1.Newton, J., Rutten, T., and Rainey, J. Pockets of more specificethnic differentials per se can also be noted. Whether economic or social, and whether or not it isexclusively, partly, or proportionately economic and/or social, the bottomline is that privilege begets privilege. Money, especially when more of it is concentrated with men, is morevalued and privileged by society, hence more values women's work. ."Women's History Month: March 1-31, Education." Census Bureau Facts for Features, CB99-FF. 196-242.Weber, Max. Whereas Marx always takes the view that thebest way to interpret unequal social relationships is to point to unequaleconomic relationships between capital and labor, which alienates theworking class from experience of power. Weber also cites (Protestant) AdamSmith's economic theory, which he says amounts to a "moral justification ofworldly activity" (81), which famously includes the doctrine of an"invisible hand" of market order and rationality held to be thedistinguishing feature of capitalism. Labor, particularly unskilled butnevertheless necessary industrial labor, cannot compete fairly withcapital, which controls labor's access to employment as well as the meansby which the worker's employed labor results in industrial products(Manifesto 59). H.H. That understanding can be located along lines that place at thehighest social class those who are white, male, Western European, andChristian, i.e., those who have most ready identification with thehistorical emergence of capitalism as the defining feature of socialstructure. Weber takes the view that individual experience is abyproduct of whatever structure society happens to have and whatever socialgroup the individual is part of. has grown . (1946). Simpson case in1995 illustrates the complexities of explaining the influence of class andracial divisions on social structure and praxis in terms of social theory.It has been asserted that the Simpson verdict was a consequence ofcenturies of oppressive implementation of bureaucratic power against asocially powerless racial minority group (Fisher A1 ). Mills. But, after Weber, given the jurors' underclass status,the race variable could be interpreted as instrumental in nullification, aninformal response to dominant-class formal legal structures that havehistorically disadvantaged the race. Such an action, interpreted as a call forrejection of the evidence, is known as jury nullification and is illegal,hence a deliberate challenge to the integrity and stability of socialstructure. Paradox arises because the defendant, a racial minority, had by reasonof his wealth access to every benefit the legal bureaucracy could offerwealthy persons of any ethnic or racial background. verymuch overlap and converge upon race, particularly the cleavage betweenthose of white European and black African origin. In other words, education alone does not determineeconomic success; another dynamic is at work. London: Penguin Books/Classics, 1993. Trans. . On the Weberian and Marxistview, the economic differential explains why education does not makesocioeconomic difference for women, even in the context of progress forthem. . They are therefore not revolutionary, butconservative" (Manifesto 63)--which explains the armed Koreans during the1992 Los Angeles riot. In the process, says theManifesto, the bourgeoisie has managed to turn the proletariat against itand sow the seeds of its future demise. The Weberian interpretation would be that the verdict supersededthe demands of the bureaucracy. "Intellectual Orientations." From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Martin Nicolaus. The fact thatSimpson and the jurors were of different social classes argues that thevariable of race disregarded class (or perhaps embraced celebrity) in theperson of Simpson. But the views of social structure by Weberand Marx can be distinguished. Ingreater Los Angeles, Korean shopowners as a group appear to have functionednearer mainstream middle class norms, owing to the practice of kye, orethnic support for family-owned small-business owners, than AfricanAmerican counterparts, who were frequently unemployed or recipients of someform of government assistance (Light 17ff). Mills. February 23, 1999. H.H. New York: Routledge, 1992.Weisbord, Robert G. The point is, class warfare is bourgeois industrial societyas Marx sees it. This research will examine the ability of Marxian and Weberianconceptions of class to explain patterns of socioeconomic stratification inthe U.S., with reference to the roles and interplay of race, ethnicity, andgender in shaping patterns of class stratification in the U.S. Martin Malia. Foreword. As Marx puts it, the shopkeepers "fightagainst the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence asfractions of the middle class. Cambridge: Harvard U P, 1987.Marx, Karl. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Trans. ratio of 1973(Women's), the disparity of economic benefit is not difficult to notice.Further, this disparity exists in a context of a female majority populationand a culture in which, as of 1998, the education of women aged 25 to 29exceeded that of men in the same age group. . Some 9 % of young women,compared to 87% of young men, had at least high school education, and 29%had at least a baccalaureate degree bachelor's degree or more, compared to26% for men (Women's). . (1995, September 28). Census Bureau's report that full-time workers who are women earned 74 cents in 1997 (the last year for whichofficial figures are available) for every dollar earned by men. W. Abureaucratic apparatus administers access to social protections andbenefits. Trans. A view hostile to suchanalysis is held by those (e.g., Ms. Paglia B4) notable for their genderwho deplore feminism as fostering a "dated scenario of male oppressors andfrail female victims." Ethnicity and race as the bases for social analysis in the U.S. New York: Schocken Books, 1972."Women's History Month: March 1-31, Earnings and Jobs." Census Bureau Facts for Features, CB99-FF. New York: Penguin/Signet Classic, 1998.---. But blacks, protesting as they were against whatthey viewed as unequal access to justice in the notorious acquittal ofwhite police officers for beating black motorist Rodney King, remained verymuch at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale, or worse, excluded fromparticipation in it, even as subsistence-level proletarians. February 23, 1999. Weber's theory makes a more general point about what he calls "thepropertyless masses," who, he says: are not served by a formal 'equality before the law' and a 'calculable' adjudication and administration, as demanded by 'bourgeois' interests. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1966.Paglia, Camille. Now rhetorical flourishes of the charismatic principal defenseattorney in the Simpson case came down to exhortation to send a message tosociety's power structure by acquitting the defendant, on behalf of thewhole of this historically oppressed racial minority (Newton and Ford A1;Newton, Rutten, and Rainey A1). .property in a few hands" (Manifesto 56). "Academic Feminists Must Begin to Fulfill Their Noble, Animating Ideal." Chronicle of Higher Education 25 July 1997: B4-B5.Weber, Max. and Stein, Arthur. The invisible hand of order is to be distinguished from the hand ofsocial equality. More generally, it could be saidthat the bottom line is--well--the bottom line. Marx's utopian advocacy of thecoming dictatorship of the unchained proletariat is outside the scope ofthis research. New York: Oxford U P, 1946. This situation fosteredresentments that were brought to the fore by the 1992 riots in blackneighborhoods where Korean shopowners armed themselves, with a view towardpreventing crimes against their property (Burton 26), against attack.Marxist theory can point to either the creation of proprietorships in theKorean community as a response to white mainstream economic activity, or,alternatively, to the economic powerlessness of blacks as (often jobless)tenants vis-à-vis either white mainstream or insular ethnic Korean economicpractices that exclude them. Works CitedBrazil, J. Naturally, in their eyes justice and administration should serve to compensate for their economic and social life-opportunities in the face of the propertied classes. Marxist and Weberian formulations of social differences are difficultto reduce to simple terms. Meanwhile, also after Marx and from the legalstructure's point of view, the defendant's acquittal could be identifiedwith the normal expectation that moneyed and propertied persons would tendto receive value for societal benefits that they could purchase. Gerty and C.W. "Willie Cravin Calls D.A.'s Case 'Weak' and Says Glove Demonstration Undermined the Impact of the DNA Evidence." Los Angeles Times 25 June 1995: B1.Burton, J. London: Penguin Books/Classics, 1993.Newton, J., and Ford, A. Consider the U.S. In the industrialperiod or bourgeois epoch (Manifesto 54), however, social rank isidentified not with the difference between (say) aristocrat and serf, wherea sentimental veneer attaches to human relationships, but rather with theconcentration and centralization of "means of production, and . Harlem: The Making of a Ghetty, Negro New York, 189 - 193 . "Bureaucracy." From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology.
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