Beliefs about Stratification

Abstract

Since stratification is a basic aspect of society, beliefs about stratification are necessarily related to beliefs about society in general. Consideration of the determinants of beliefs about stratification necessitates attention to the effects of culture and subculture, technology, occupational conditions, class, and economic position. A review of the consequences of beliefs re­ quires consideration of political ideology and political behavior. We limit this review in two ways. First, we focus on beliefs about economic inequality. Thus, we do not review work directly related to be­ liefs about racial or sexual inequality; both of these topics have substan­ tial literatures of their own, which are best reviewed in the context of the broader study of race and sex inequality. We also exclude the substantial literature on occupational status or prestige. Although certain aspects of this literature are relevant to stratification beliefs (Goldthorpe & Hope 1974; Villemez 1974), much of the work in this area has attempted to use occupational position to establish a general measure of position in a soci­ etal inequality hierarchy (Treiman 1977), and this effort is largely irrele­ vant to our present concern. Second, we limit our attention primarily to recent American research and secondarily to recent British work on strati­ fication beliefs. These two countries have produced most of the recent empirical studies of stratification beliefs in English.