Karl Marx ’s Theory of Social Classes

Fourth, power is never equally distributed Dye 4. “Power holder” must control some values in hisher society in order to get hisher influence. This situation urge for one domination. By controlling the values, the power holder is in a position to offer these values as rewards to others or to threaten to deprive others of these values. There is no power if power is equal. Fifth, power is a relationship among individuals, groups, and institutions in society Dye 4. When someone is isolated from hisher society, heshe is powerless. We can say that power is not really a “thing” that an individual possesses. Instead, power is a relationship in which some individuals or groups have control over certain resources. When someone wants to be powerful, heshe has to manage hisher relationship well. Sixth, power is exercised in interpersonal relations. Psychologist Rollo May wrote that “power means the ability to affect, to influence, and to change other persons” Dye 4. In a society, interpersonal relation is the first step to “conquer” the mass as a whole community. The last one, power is exercised in large institutions – governments, corporations, schools, the military, churches, newspapers, television networks, law firms, and so on. Power that stems from high positions in the social structures of society is stable and far-reaching Dye 5. Sociologist C. Wright Mills observed: “No one can be truly powerful unless he has access to the command of major institutions, for it is over these institutional means of power that the truly powerful are, in the first instance, powerful Dye 5 .” Not all power, it is true, is anchored in or exercised through institutions. Yet institutional positions in society provide a continuous and important base of power. Mills explains: If we took the one hundred most powerful men in America, the one hundred wealthiest, and the one hundred most celebrated away from the institutional positions they now occupy, away from their resources of men and women and money, away from the media of mass communication that are now focused upon them – then they would be powerless and poor and uncelebrated. For power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person o f the wealthy…. To have power requires access to major institutions, for the institutional positions men occupy determine in large part their chances to have and to hold these valued experiences Dye 5. According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia there are some sources of power. They are delegated authority for example in the democratic process, social class material wealth can equal power, personal or group charisma, ascribed power acting on perceived or assumed abilities, whether these bear testing or not, expertise ability, skills the power of medicine to bring about health; another famous example would be in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king - Desiderius Erasmus, persuasion direct, indirect, or subliminal, Knowledge granted or withheld, shared or kept secret, money financial influence, control of labour, control through ownership, etc, fame, force violence, military might, coercion, moral persuasion including religion, operation of group dynamics such as public relations, social influence of tradition compare ascribed power, and in relationships; dominationsubmissiveness PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

4. Theory of Stratification

People in the world are divided into several classes. Each of the people has her or his role within their society. Consciously or unconsciously, people are divided into their social status. The life of the Afro-American people in 1960s was also divided into their social status. The social status of black community, can be said, is the excess of social strata that was build by white community. This situation can be happen because the influence of white in the slavery era was so strong. In 1960s, the Whites have higher social status in a society rather than the Blacks. Black people got a different treatment in front of the law or in public places because they belonged to the lower social status. We know that black people used to be slaves and the label of lower social status seems to be inherited from their ancestor. The stratification that was built, if it is not controlled well, will lead into social discrimination. In the other words, discrimination will happen if there is stratification within a society and there is no social control which makes the differentiation as a tool to build the society stronger. So, what are the positive and negative effects of stratification? Melvin M. Tumin wrote some functions of stratification as stated in the form of provisional assertions, as follows Tumin 58: Firstly, social stratification systems function to limit the possibility of discovery of the full range of talent available in a society. It means that every PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI