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218 CHAPTER 7 Global Stratification

Strains in the Global System
Identify strains in today’s
7.9
system of global stratification.
It is never easy to maintain global stratification. At the very least, a continuous stream of
unanticipated events forces the elite to stay on their toes, and at times, huge currents of
history threaten to sweep them aside. No matter how secure a stratification system may
seem, it always contains unresolved issues. These contradictions can be covered up for
a while, but inevitably they rear up. Some are just little dogs nipping at the heels of the
world’s elites, bringing issues that can be resolved with a few tanks or bombs—or, better,
with a scowl and the threat to bomb an opponent. Other issues are of a broader nature,
part of huge historical shifts. Baring their teeth, both emerging and old unresolved con-
tradictions snarlingly demand change, even the rearrangement of global power.
Historical shifts bring cataclysmic disruptions. We are now living through such a time.
The far-reaching economic–political changes in Russia and China have been accompa-
nied by huge cracks in a creaking global banking system. In desperation, the global pow-
ers have pumped trillions of dollars into their economic–political systems. As curious as
we are about the outcome and as much as our lives are affected, we don’t know the end
point of this current strain in the global system and the power elites’ attempts to patch
up the most glaring inconsistencies in their global domination. As this process of realign-
ment continues, however, it is likely to sweep all of us into its unwelcome net.

MySocLab Study and Review on MySocLab

CHAPTER 7 Summary and Review

Systems of Social Stratification system is much more open than these other systems, since it is
based primarily on money or material possessions. Industrial-
ization encourages the formation of class systems. Gender cuts
Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded labor),
across all forms of social stratification. Pp. 190–198.
7.1
caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
What Determines Social Class?
What is social stratification?
Social stratification refers to a hierarchy of privilege based
on property, power, and prestige. Every society stratifies its 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what determines
members, and in every society, men-as-a-group are placed social class.
above women-as-a-group. P. 190.
Karl Marx argued that a single factor determines social class:
What are four major systems of social If you own the means of production, you belong to the
stratification? bourgeoisie; if you do not, you are one of the proletariat.
Four major stratification systems are slavery, caste, estate, and Max Weber argued that three elements determine social
class. The essential characteristic of slavery is that some people class: property, power, and prestige. Pp. 198–199.
own other people. Initially, slavery was based not on race but
on debt, punishment for crime, or defeat in battle. Slavery Why Is Social Stratification Universal?
could be temporary or permanent and was not necessarily
passed on to the children. North American slavery was gradu- Contrast the functionalist and conflict views of why social
7.3
ally buttressed by a racist ideology. In a caste system, people’s stratification is universal.
status, which is lifelong, is determined by their caste’s relation
to other castes. The estate system of feudal Europe consisted To explain why stratification is universal, functionalists King-
of three estates: the nobility, clergy, and peasants (serfs). A class sley Davis and Wilbert Moore argued that to attract the most