SOC 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Social Stratification
Document Summary
These rationales help to account for the persistence of particular social stratification systems. In the most general sense, legitimating rationales are widely accepted beliefs that something is fair and just. With respect to stratification, then, legitimating rationales are widely accepted beliefs that the inequalities that exist in a particular society (differences in power, wealth, prestige, and so on) are essentially right and reasonable (della fave. In other words, the rationales that legitimate stratification systems reflect people"s beliefs about why some people are ranked higher than others and why this is fair. To the degree that stratification systems differ across societies, we would expect them to have different legitimating rationales. Understanding these rationales will help us to make sense of people"s acceptance of the kind of stratification that exists in their society. Though there are perhaps as many forms of stratification as there are societies, sociologists generally group these into three major categories:
