7.3.2: The Conflict Perspective:

 7.3.2: The Conflict Perspective: Class Conflict and Scarce Resources Conflict theorists don’t just criticize details of the functionalist argument. Rather, they go for the throat and attack its basic premise. Conflict, not function, they stress, is the reason that we have social stratification. Let’s look at the major arguments. Mosca’s Argument Italian sociologist Gaetano Mosca argued that every society will be stratified by power. This is inevitable, he said in an 1896 book titled The Ruling Class (1896/1939), because: No society can exist unless it is organized. This requires leadership to coordinate people’s actions. Leadership requires inequalities of power. By definition, some people lead, while others follow. Because human nature is self-centered, people in power will use their positions to seize greater rewards for themselves. There is no way around these facts of life, added Mosca. Social stratification is inevitable, and every society will stratify itself along lines of power. 

Marx’s Argument If he were alive to hear the functionalist argument, Marx would be enraged. From his point of view, the people in power are not there because of superior traits, as the functionalists would have us believe. This view is an ideology that members of the elite use to justify their being at the top—and to seduce the oppressed into believing that their welfare depends on keeping quiet and following authorities. What is human history, Marx asked, except the chronicle of class struggle? All of human history is an account of small groups of people in power using society’s resources to benefit themselves and to oppress those beneath them—and of oppressed groups trying to overcome that domination. Marx predicted that the workers will revolt. Capitalist ideology blinds them, but one day, class consciousness will rip that blindfold off and expose the truth. When workers realize their common oppression, they will rebel. The struggle to control the means of production may be covert at first, taking such forms as work slowdowns and industrial sabotage. Ultimately, however, resistance will break out into the open. But the revolution will not be easy because the bourgeoisie control the police, the military, and even the educational system, where they implant false class consciousness in the minds of the workers’ children. Current Applications of Conflict Theory Just as Marx focused on over-arching historical events—the accumulation of capital and power and the struggle between workers and capitalists—so do some of today’s conflict sociologists. In analyzing global stratification and global capitalism, they look at power relations among nations, how national elites control workers, and how power shifts as capital is shuffled among nations (Smith 2016; Van der Merwe and Dodd 2019). Other conflict sociologists, in contrast, examine conflict wherever it is found, not just as it relates to capitalists and workers. They examine how groups within the same class compete with one another for a larger slice of the pie (King et al. 2010; McManus 2019). Even within the same industry, for example, union will fight against union for higher salaries, shorter hours, and more power. Another focus of conflict theorists is conflict between racial–ethnic groups as they compete for work, education, housing, and even prestige—whatever rewards society has to offer. They also study the relations between women and men, which conflict theorists say are best understood as a conflict over power—over who controls society’s resources. Unlike functionalists, conflict theorists say that just beneath the surface of what may appear to be a tranquil society lies conflict that is barely held in check.