Class and Status: The Conceptual Distinction and its Empirical Relevance

TLDR

The article revisits Weber’s distinction between class and status as related but distinct forms of social stratification. The study demonstrates that class and status have distinct explanatory power: class better predicts economic security and party voting, whereas status better predicts cultural consumption and libertarian‑authoritarian attitudes.

Abstract

In this article, we return to Max Weber's distinction between class and status as related but different forms of social stratification. We argue that this distinction is not only conceptually cogent, but empirically important as well. Indeed, class and status do have distinct explanatory power when it comes to studying varying areas of social life. Consistent with Weber's assertions, we show that economic security and prospects are stratified more by class than by status, while the opposite is true for outcomes in the domain of cultural consumption. Within politics, class rather than status predicts Conservative versus Labour Party voting in British general elections and also Left-Right political attitudes. But it is status rather than class that predicts Libertarian-Authoritarian attitudes.