Causes and problems of social inequality. Social inequality: causes, signs, examples Modern understanding of social inequality is expressed in

In human society, social inequality remains one of the most pressing problems, the solution to which excites the minds of politicians and philosophers. In modern Russia, the scale of social inequality is colossal. Even in comparison with other developed countries of the world, Russia is a real “land of contrasts.” There is a huge gap between rich and poor here. Higher levels of inequality are found only in developing countries in Africa and Asia. But attitudes towards social inequality in Russian society vary. Some blame the injustice of privatization for high social polarization, others defend the “original” inequality of people and are convinced that the most active and capable people get resources that allow them to greatly increase the social distance from others - the unlucky and passive.

Classes in the Union, before the revolution and in post-Soviet Russia

In modern Russian society, a distinct class structure began to take shape after the formation of a class of entrepreneurs - owners - began in the Soviet Union in the last years of its existence. Before this, in the USSR the social structure of the population was strikingly different from the capitalist countries of the world. Most Western countries have much in common in the nature of the social structure of the population. As a rule, in developed Western countries there are five main strata. Firstly, this is the elite. This social stratum includes super-rich people - large entrepreneurs - industrialists and financiers, show business stars, politicians, generals, hereditary aristocracy. The second group is the upper middle class, consisting of representatives of top management and high-status officials, as well as highly qualified professionals. The third group is the middle class, or “professionals,” which includes highly qualified specialists, usually engineers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, officers and many others. This class is distinguished by the presence of education and the relatively high income of its representatives, but does not have serious power and financial resources.

The fourth layer - “basic” - consists of the bulk of skilled workers who, however, do not have higher education and cannot get into a higher social stratum due to being in lower status positions. Meanwhile, the incomes of this part of the population are very high and it is impossible to consider them “social lower classes.” Moreover, they perform qualified work and have official status. Finally, the fifth layer is the so-called precariat. The main difference between the precariat as a class in the modern world is the lack of social guarantees. “Precaries” work in unstable conditions and do not have clearly established wages. At the same time, this category of workers can include both freelance specialists and people without education or any qualifications who earn odd jobs. In any case, the situation of the precariat is characterized by extreme social instability, which affects both the financial condition and political loyalty of representatives of the “non-guaranteed” segment of the labor market. In addition to the precariat, there is, of course, also the real social lower classes - the world of the lumpen, people without education, burdened with the burden of numerous social vices, most often who are or have been for a long time in serious trouble with the law. The world of the lumpen is a special social environment, which does not make sense to consider within the framework of traditional concepts of “poverty” or “prosperity”, since a representative of this social stratum can spend a lot of money to satisfy their needs for alcohol or drugs, but at the same time lead everyday life in real poverty. It is this feature of representatives of the lumpen population that makes them so different from the rest of the category of the poor and, at the same time, takes them somewhat beyond the scope of our article itself.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, according to a study by St. Petersburg sociologist Boris Mironov (see Sociological Research magazine, No. 8, 2014), the poorest segment of society consisted of unskilled workers and lumpen people. In the lowest income group of the Russian population in 1901-1904. included: 1) beggars, vagabonds, wanderers, inhabitants of almshouses; 2) agricultural workers (farmers); 3) day laborers and laborers; 4) women and children employed in industrial production. However, social inequality in the Russian Empire was not as widespread as in the United States of America or Great Britain. At the same time, American citizens, in terms of ruble equivalent, were much richer than Russian residents. If to the richest Russians in 1900-1910. were people with an average income of 991 rubles, then the richest Americans were people with an average income of 8,622 rubles. At the same time, in Russia, unlike Western countries, there was no large stratum of the middle class that already existed in the West, and the overwhelming majority of the country's population in their way of life was very different from the insignificant layer of the aristocracy, wealthy merchants and manufacturers. This difference is evidenced, at least, by the almost total illiteracy of the broad masses of the Russian population, which already in the post-revolutionary period gave rise to an obvious need for the mass elimination of illiteracy among the adult population of the Soviet state.

In modern Russia, due to its historical and political specifics, a slightly different type of social structure has developed. It is distinguished, firstly, by a high level of fusion between government and big business. It is often difficult to understand “where a businessman ends and an official begins” and vice versa. Famous sociologist O.I. Shkaratan (Shkaratan O.I. Socio-economic inequality and its reproduction in modern Russia. M, 2009) believes that modern Russian society is divided into the following main groups. Firstly, this is an extremely small class of large and medium-sized owners - somewhere around 4% of the population. Secondly, this is the “middle class” - small entrepreneurs, managers, professionals working “for themselves”. There are no more than 22% of them. Finally, the third group consists of performers - non-owners. These include 74% of the Russian population - here are “state employees”, and ordinary employees of private companies, and the working class. Of course, this model of class classification in modern Russia is very conditional, but it more or less accurately reflects the division of Russian society on such an issue as the attitude to property. There are very few full-fledged owners in Russia, and in this the country differs from Western countries, where there are developed traditions of entrepreneurship. It is known that the number of small and medium-sized enterprises and, accordingly, people employed in the field of small and medium-sized businesses in modern Russia is much smaller than in most developed countries of the world. Meanwhile, this is a very alarming trend, since small and medium-sized businessmen, who represent the basis of the “middle class,” are a very stable and socially stable contingent, as a rule, patriotic, active, that is, they represent great value for the country. It would seem that the Russian state should support small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, but in practice it turns out that small and medium-sized businesses most often experience quite serious problems in the country.

The specificity of the Russian situation lies in the fact that in Russia, as in many countries belonging to the “third world,” the possession of power resources often turns out to be more significant than the possession of property, even large ones. For example, the positions of an employee of law enforcement agencies or the administration of a city, district, or rural settlement may turn out to be more significant than the positions of an entrepreneur, even though formally a security officer or official belongs to the class of performers, and an entrepreneur belongs to the class of owners. Secondly, in Russia, due to the colossal geographical differences between its regions, there is also an obvious division between residents of the capital and residents of the province, residents of large cities and small towns and, even more so, rural areas. Thus, even a low-income resident of the capital, who does not work or works in a non-status and low-paid job, but owns housing in Moscow, by selling his home and moving to the province, can turn into a wealthy “rentier”, living on interest from a deposit in the bank of funds received for the sold property. real estate. The sale of even inexpensive housing by Moscow standards will give him the opportunity to have a very high income for the province. That is, there is both a “power” plane of social inequality and a “geographical” plane of social inequality. In the first plane, the following groups can be distinguished: 1) representatives of senior officials; 2) representatives of the middle layer of administrative workers, senior officers of law enforcement agencies; 3) private entrepreneurs 4) the base layer of performers who do not have power resources; 5) social lower classes. In the second plane, the following categories are clearly distinguished: 1) residents of the capital of the country - Moscow; 2) residents of St. Petersburg and the suburbs of Moscow; 3) residents of the main large urban centers (Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnoyarsk, etc.); 4) residents of regional centers; 5) residents of small towns and regional centers; 6) residents of rural areas. Of course, within each of the listed categories there is also its own differentiation - for example, the situation of residents of coastal cities, who have the opportunity to derive income from the resort business and trade, and residents of depressed cities and settlements - former mining and factory villages and towns - are different.

About the causes of poverty

Of course, anyone who asks about the problems of social inequality in modern Russia inevitably faces the question of what are the main causes of poverty. Why are some people able to maintain a more or less decent standard of living, while other people find themselves literally on the brink of survival? According to sociological research, representatives of the Russian lower strata of society themselves cite long-term lack of work, small amounts of state social benefits, and family misfortunes and incidents as the main reasons for their own poverty. Indeed, unemployment is a very serious problem for Russia, especially in small towns and rural areas, and a long-term lack of work and regular income inevitably throws a person into a marginal environment and contributes to the marginalization of his way of life. On the other hand, the main social payments - pensions for the majority of hired workers - remain insignificant, or even insignificant; benefits for single mothers and large families; survivor benefits; unemployment benefits; pensions for disabled people. Many pensioners in Russia still receive 6 thousand rubles a month, and this despite the fact that the rent for modest housing can reach half of the stated pension amount. At the same time, many Russians surveyed by sociologists are convinced that poverty in modern Russia is often caused by social vices - drunkenness, drug addiction, parasitism, as well as personal characteristics - lack of initiative, laziness, lack of a “life core”. It turns out that many poor people, from this point of view, are themselves to blame for their poor financial situation. It is possible that when they talk about people who have become drunk or drunk, there is a certain amount of truth here. But is it really the fault of pensioners - doctors, teachers, lecturers who have worked for forty years for the benefit of the Soviet and Russian states - for their miserable situation? It is hardly possible to call today’s young and not so young specialists to blame for their situation, who continue to work for very little money in clinics and schools, universities and libraries, museums and theaters, factories and in the agricultural sector.

However, it should be noted that in recent years, or rather even a decade, the level of well-being of Russians as a whole has increased somewhat. Gradually, “poverty” becomes more characteristic of marginal groups of the population, which is reflected in the general attitude of Russians towards the poor and “poor” fellow citizens. Traditionally, Russian society has been characterized by a sympathetic attitude towards poverty and the poor, as evidenced by numerous popular sayings. A humane attitude towards poverty is characteristic of most literary works; moreover, in some cases poverty is even considered as a “social quality” worthy of respect. Contempt for poverty, the assertion that poor people themselves are to blame for their fate, are more typical of Western culture based on Protestantism. The social doctrine of Protestantism, especially Calvinism, suggests that rich people are more devout Christians than poor people because of their tendency to accumulate, which is a consequence of their asceticism, self-discipline and self-restraint. Poor people pay for their own vices and sins with their poverty. For Russian culture, which was formed on the basis of Orthodoxy, as well as for the cultures of other peoples of Russia professing other traditional confessions for our country, such an attitude towards rich and poor was not considered normal. The poor and “beggars” were helped, and this help was considered a blessing in both Christianity and Islam.

In modern Russia, there is a fairly clear concept of poverty that is justified by the specifics of social reality. In accordance with it, the poor residents of the Russian Federation include those people who have incomes of about 9,000 rubles per capita. Most of the country's citizens earn approximately 40-50% more than this amount. At the same time, the official poverty threshold that the country’s government talks about - the “living minimum” - is significantly lower than the majority of Russian citizens’ ideas about what is considered the poverty line. In fact, if you can hardly live on 9 thousand rubles, then it is almost impossible to live on 5-6 thousand rubles, at least when this money is the income of one person. Of course, in the family the situation changes somewhat and a family of three can hardly survive for a month on about 15-20 thousand rubles. What is considered a sign of poverty in modern Russia? Firstly, this is the poor quality of food, the inability to purchase new and high-quality clothing, and unsatisfactory living conditions. Most of the poor live in communal rooms, dormitories, emergency and dilapidated housing. The poor part of the population is characterized by unequal chances of obtaining a quality education and employment in prestigious fields of activity; it has incomparably lower cultural and social capital. However, as a result of the economic reforms of the 1990s, the Russian Federation experienced massive impoverishment of the population, including representatives of the intelligentsia and skilled workers. People who, in terms of their professional qualities and skills, and level of education, would have been included in the stratum of professionals or the basic stratum in the West, in Russia found themselves below the poverty line as a result of the collapse of industry and agriculture, massive and long-term non-payment of wages, and sharp inflation. It was as a result of the political and economic vicissitudes that befell Russian society in the 1990s that Russian poverty acquired such diverse shapes. A school teacher, a retired military plant engineer, or a drunkard who has never worked anywhere all his life and drank away his home can be poor.

Stratification of the poor

Like society as a whole, the class of Russian poor is also differentiated. Sociologists identify several main groups classified as poor. First of all, these are the “poor in deprivation.” These include 25% of Russian citizens who, due to insufficient income, cannot fully satisfy their needs for quality housing, education and medical care, leisure, purchasing food and clothing. Another, smaller group makes up about 9% of the Russian population. These include citizens with a very small average per capita income, not exceeding the minimum subsistence level per person established in a particular region. Another 4% of Russian citizens belong to the category of “chronically poor”. As a rule, the chronically poor have been in this social position for at least five years and have long since come to terms with their existence on the periphery of the social hierarchy of Russian society. The majority of the chronically poor cannot fully satisfy their most basic needs - they are forced to not eat enough, dress very poorly, there is no talk of rest, quality medical care, or education at all. The housing conditions of this category of the Russian population are also extremely unsatisfactory. At the same time, the world of the lower social classes is not in all cases identical to the income poor. For example, some representatives of the lumpen population, especially those balancing on the verge of the legality of their earnings, may have very good incomes by average statistical standards, but their tendency towards asocial behavior and a marginal lifestyle does not allow them to constructively manage the funds they receive - as a rule, funds in In this case, they are spent not on medical services, education, or buying furniture, but on alcohol and drugs. It should be noted that many people who are, in fact, not poor, in fact live like poor people precisely because they do not know how to manage their own salaries, suffer from alcohol and drug addiction or gambling addiction, are infantile in financial matters - that is, they themselves reduce your standard of living. In fact, in this case, those who blame the poor for their “troubles” are right, based on the tendency of a significant part of the latter to social vices. However, this concerns, again, primarily the marginal segment of the Russian poor. And even then, mass culture, based on the ideology of consumerism and directing people to maximize the consumption of often unnecessary goods and services, to maintain the illusion of imaginary prosperity, which forces them to take out loans, only aggravates and already unstable financial situation.

Despite the fact that throughout the world the most disadvantaged categories of the population have traditionally been unemployed and non-working people, in modern Russia a very large part of the poor are working citizens. At the same time, the wage level of the working poor may not exceed the subsistence level per capita. Thus, in Russia there are still wages in the amount of 5-6 thousand rubles, and they are paid to workers employed throughout the working day, including those who have a certain qualification. The least paid categories of the working population include nannies and junior kindergarten teachers, librarians, museum workers, and junior medical personnel. Their incomes are much lower than the incomes of the same unskilled workers, cleaners and other persons engaged in heavy and unskilled physical labor. A significant portion of the listed “working poor” simply cannot physically survive without additional income or help from other family members - husbands or wives, older relatives or adult children. At the same time, the education and qualifications of many of them does not allow them to be classified among the social lower classes of the country's population, while in terms of income they are on the verge of falling into the social stratum of the poor. Finally, the working poor can also include specialists who are suddenly left without work and subsist on unemployment benefits, which also have very modest amounts in Russia. Finally, the working poor include people who may have good incomes, but whose family members are disabled and force them to share their income among all family members. Thus, having many children in most cases is one of the most important reasons why Russian citizens fall into the category of the poor.

As noted above, the regional factor plays a major role in the formation of social inequality in modern Russia. The bulk of Russia's poor live in rural areas and small "depressive" cities. It was in villages and single-industry towns in the 1990s. the most terrible blow was dealt - enterprises and collective farms were closed, new jobs did not appear, as a result of which an impressive part of the population became unemployed and relatively marginalized. Many villagers live only on the pensions of older relatives and disabled relatives, as well as on odd jobs that are sporadic. In a large city it is much easier to find a job with a salary that allows you to live at least tolerably well. This factor contributes to the gradual emptying of rural areas, as internal migration develops from villages and small towns - to large cities, primarily to the capital of the country, St. Petersburg, the largest commercial and industrial centers, to cities of regional and regional significance. Belonging to the social category of the poor, on the other hand, also affects the opportunity to get a more or less interesting, prestigious or reasonably paid job. A poor person is deprived of the starting resource with which a representative of another social category can begin his work activity. For example, a poor person, without owning a car, loses most of his chances of finding a job as a taxi driver. An even greater number of vacancies become unavailable to him in the absence of education or professional qualifications, but a poor person also does not have the opportunity to receive an education, if only because he does not have the resources to ensure his existence while studying. Finally, the social capital of the poor is very limited, since they are increasingly “stuck in their own environment,” which implies a lack of connections among the affluent categories of the population.

Hereditary poverty threatens social order

The transmission of “poverty” by inheritance is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in modern Russia. Thus, at least half of the total number of modern Russian poor were born and raised in poverty. Accordingly, they most often do not have adequate social capital, cultural capital, or personal qualities and ideological guidelines that could allow them to escape poverty. This category of the population becomes the bearer of a “culture of poverty”, which develops on the periphery of Russian society. On the other hand, the possession of cultural and social capital with a very high degree of probability guarantees a way out of poverty in the event of a sudden situational fall into the stratum of the poor (the latter can happen to non-poor people in the event of the ruin of their own business, dismissal from work, problems with the law, etc.). P.). Most of those previously non-poor people who accidentally fell into a state of poverty, sooner or later again leave the stratum of the poor and move into more prosperous strata of society, which most often is a consequence of the “inclusion” of a number of resources - from their own intellectual and professional potential to the use of social connections.

At the same time, it would be wrong to assess the real standard of living of the population in Russia, guided only by official statistics and sociological research materials. It should be noted that the standard of living varies not only among different social strata, but also among different age categories of the population. Not only income, but also expenses have an impact on the standard of living. Moreover, lending is widespread in Russian society, as a result of which people who are actually poor can give the impression of more or less prosperous people (a mortgaged apartment, a car on credit, furniture and household appliances purchased on credit, despite the fact that they can pay for loans Almost all the wages are gone, that is, there is no money left to satisfy the simplest needs of life). On the other hand, people can earn very little income, but still have substantial property. For example, many pensioners of the Soviet generation own apartments, garages, and dachas, the total cost of which can amount to many millions of rubles. However, the received monthly pension of 6-10 thousand automatically allows the pensioner to be classified as a poor part of the population, although his funds in the form of real estate can be very significant. Finally, there is a huge segment of the shadow labor market to consider. Officially, people employed in the shadow sector of the economy are considered not working or unemployed, have no or almost no income, but the real level of their earnings can be quite decent and even very significant. Finally, there is another category of the poor - these are foreign labor (and non-labor) migrants who find themselves on the territory of Russia and work in low-paid jobs, or who lost their jobs due to the economic crisis and were unable to return to their home countries. The appearance of a large number of foreign outcasts poses a particular threat to the country’s security and public order, and not only criminals have appeared among migrants in recent years - due to the cultural specifics, many of them are recruited by radical organizations operating both in Russia and abroad. Considering that control over migrants is not carried out effectively enough, this trend looks very dangerous, especially in light of the current military-political situation in the Middle East or Ukraine.

The presence of a large layer of poor in modern Russia is aggravated by the colossal difference in the standard of living that exists between the bulk of the country’s population and the “super-rich.” About a hundred of the richest families currently control at least 35% of Russia's national wealth. Social polarization of the population in Russia reaches colossal proportions, comparable only to some developing countries. Meanwhile, the presence of such large-scale social inequality poses a direct threat to social stability and political order in the Russian Federation. Since there is a “conservation” of poverty, which is acquiring more and more hereditary, class-based features, sooner or later the phenomenon of “class hatred” will arise, which is still absent among the modern poor, who blame themselves, fate, the current government for their plight, but not at all social system that led to such a level of stratification of society. The Russian poor are generally characterized by political passivity. They are not interested in politics, primarily because they do not believe in the possibility of any real change in their social status, and if their own social status does not change, then there is no point in demanding any political changes in the country. Secondly, the majority of poor Russians are characterized by an increased focus on banal survival, which also does not leave them time and energy for any political or social protest activities.

But at the same time, one cannot deny the fact that with effective influence “from the outside,” the huge masses of the Russian poor can turn into a very explosive contingent. Any anti-state forces interested in undermining the political and social order in the country can take advantage of the social discontent of the Russian poor. Moreover, these forces can raise slogans of social justice, without actually intending to put them into practice. That is, the social inequality inherent in modern Russia can play a very negative role in the fate of the country - at least if the state does not take up the solution to the numerous accumulated social problems of Russian society. It is difficult to disagree with Russian political scientist Alexander Karatkevich, who believes that “exceeding the permissible degree of inequality leads to a large difference in the standard of living of individual status groups in society, which can be regarded as discrimination, infringement of certain groups of the population. This circumstance often leads to the emergence of social tension in society and serves as fertile ground for the emergence, development and spread of social conflicts. Therefore, every society must develop a system of regulators to reduce the degree of social inequality” (Karatkevich A.G. Social inequality as a threat to political stability and security of society // PolitBook, No. 4, 2014).

Is it possible to change the existing social stratification as a result of government policy aimed at reducing social inequality? Undoubtedly. This is evidenced by the experience of a number of European countries, in which at the beginning of the twentieth century the level of social inequality far exceeded Russian indicators, but by the end of the twentieth century the distance between the richest and poorest citizens had decreased many times over. But solving the problem of social inequality will require appropriate efforts from the leadership of the Russian state. Whether the current political elite will be able to sacrifice their individual financial interests and put the interests of Russia, its stability and development, above their own, or whether they will not be able to - the reduction of social polarization of Russian society primarily depends on this.

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Aspects of inequality

Inequality in human society acts as one of the current objects of sociological research. Its reasons also lie in several main aspects.

Inequality initially implies different opportunities and unequal access to available social and material goods. Among these benefits are the following:

Income is a certain amount of money that a person receives per unit of time. Often, income is directly the wage that is paid for the labor produced by a person and the physical or mental strength expended. In addition to labor, it can also be the ownership of property that “works.” Thus, the lower a person’s income, the lower the level he is in the hierarchy of society;
Education is a complex of knowledge, skills and abilities acquired by a person during his stay in educational institutions. Educational attainment is measured by the number of years of schooling. These can range from 9 years (junior high school). For example, a professor may have more than 20 years of education behind him; accordingly, he will be at a much higher level than a person who has completed 9 grades;
Power is the ability of an individual to impose his worldview and point of view on wider sections of the population, regardless of their desire. The level of power is measured by the number of people over which it extends;
Prestige is a position in society and its assessment, which has developed on the basis of public opinion.

Causes of social inequality

For a long time, many researchers have wondered whether society can exist in principle if there is no inequality or hierarchy in it. In order to answer this question, it is necessary to understand the causes of social inequality.

Different approaches interpret this phenomenon and its causes differently. Let's analyze the most influential and famous ones.

Note 1

Functionalism explains the phenomenon of inequality based on the variety of social functions. These functions are inherent in different layers, classes and communities.

The functioning and development of social relations are possible only under the condition of division of labor. In this situation, each social group solves problems that are vital for the entire society. Some are engaged in the creation and production of material goods, while the activities of others are aimed at creating spiritual values. A control layer is also needed that will control the activities of the first two - hence the third.

For the successful functioning of society, a combination of all three of the above types of human activity is simply necessary. Some turn out to be the most important, and some the least. Thus, based on the hierarchies of functions, a hierarchy of classes and layers that perform them is formed.

Status explanation of social inequality. It is based on observations of the actions and behavior of specific individuals. As we understand, every person who occupies a certain place in society automatically acquires his status. Hence the opinion that social inequality is, first of all, inequality of status. It stems both from the ability of individuals to perform a certain role, and from the opportunities that allow a person to achieve a certain position in society.

In order for an individual to fulfill one or another social role, he needs to have certain skills, abilities and qualities (to be competent, sociable, to have the appropriate knowledge and skills to be a teacher, engineer). The opportunities that allow a person to achieve a particular position in society are, for example, ownership of property, capital, origin from a famous and wealthy family, belonging to a high class or political forces.

An economic view of the causes of social inequality. In accordance with this point of view, the main reason for social inequality lies in unequal treatment of property and distribution of material goods. This approach was most clearly manifested under Marxism, when it was the emergence of private property that led to the social stratification of society and the formation of antagonistic classes.

Problems of social inequality

Social inequality is a very common phenomenon, and therefore, like many other manifestations in society, it faces a number of problems.

Firstly, problems of inequality arise simultaneously in two of the most developed areas of society: in the social and economic spheres.

When we talk about problems of inequality in the public sphere, it is worth mentioning the following manifestations of instability:

Uncertainty about one’s future, as well as about the stability of the position in which the individual currently finds himself;
Suspension of production due to dissatisfaction on the part of various segments of the population, which leads to a shortage of products for others;
Growing social tension, which can lead to consequences such as riots, social conflicts;
Lack of real social elevators that will allow you to move up the social ladder both from bottom to top and vice versa - from top to bottom;
Psychological pressure due to a feeling of unpredictability of the future, lack of clear forecasts for further development.

In the economic sphere, the problems of social inequality are expressed as follows: an increase in government costs for the production of certain goods or services, a partially unfair distribution of income (received not by those who actually work and use their physical strength, but by those who invest more money), respectively, from here Another significant problem arises - unequal access to resources.

Note 2

A special feature of the problem of inequality of access to resources is that it is both a cause and a consequence of modern social inequality.

“Even in a prosperous society, the unequal status of people remains an important and enduring phenomenon... Of course, these differences are no longer based on the direct force and legal norms on which the system of privileges in a caste or class society was based. Nevertheless, in addition to the cruder divisions of property and income, prestige and power, our society is characterized by many differences of rank - so subtle and at the same time so deeply rooted that claims about the disappearance of all forms of inequality as a result of equalizing processes can be perceived as but at least skeptical.”

Dahrendorf R.

Inequality is an integral element of any society. We are talking about social inequality, which is reproduced in fairly stable forms, as a reflection of the political, economic, cultural and normative structure of society. Research by anthropologists suggests that inequality already existed in primitive societies and was determined by strength, dexterity, courage, religious awareness, etc. Inequality is generated even by natural differences between people, but it manifests itself most deeply as a consequence of social factors. As a result, some individuals, groups or layers have greater capabilities or resources (financial, power, etc.) than others. The existence of social inequality can be taken as an axiom. However, an explanation of its nature, the foundations of historical evolution, and the relationship of specific forms remains one of the key problems of any sociological research.

Inequality in modern sociological theory.

There are different definitions of inequality: “Inequality is the conditions under which people have unequal access to social goods such as money, power and prestige”; “Social inequality is a specific form of social differentiation in which individuals, social boundaries, layers, classes are at different levels of the vertical social hierarchy and have unequal life chances and opportunities to meet needs”; “In its most general form, inequality means that people live in conditions in which they have unequal access to limited resources for material and spiritual consumption.” All these definitions reflect different aspects of social inequality.

In sociology, one of the first explanations of inequality was given by E. Durkheim in his work “On the Division of Social Labor.” The author's conclusion is that different types of activities are valued differently in society. Accordingly, they form a certain hierarchy. Moreover, people themselves have different degrees of talent, skill, etc. Society must ensure that the most able and competent perform the most important functions; this in turn determines various rewards.

Within the framework of structural functionalism, the concept of stratification was developed by American sociologists K. Davis and W. Moore. Inequality acts as a natural way of self-regulation and survival of society, its organization, and as an incentive for advancement. Thus, society is not just differentiated, but hierarchically structured, according to the principle of “higher” - “lower”.

The analysis of the vertical stratification of society is reflected in the theory of stratification. The very concept of “stratification” came to sociology from geology, where “strata” means a geological layer. This concept quite accurately conveys the content of social differentiation, when social groups are arranged in social space in a hierarchically organized, vertically sequential series along some dimension of inequality.

The criteria for organizing inequality may be different. This serves as the basis for a multidimensional approach to the study of social stratification in Western sociology. As you know, for many years we were dominated by class theory, based on a one-dimensional approach to the analysis of social differentiation, where the determining criterion is the attitude to property and the means of production. Hence, at various stages of development of society, the main classes of the haves and have-nots were distinguished: slaves and slave owners, peasants and feudal lords, proletarians and bourgeois.

However, the “closedness” to the economy could not explain the diversity and volume that in real life characterize the social differentiation of society. M. Weber expands the range of criteria, including attitude to power and social prestige, which allows one to take one or another place on the social ladder in accordance with one’s status.

P. A. Sorokin identifies different forms of social differentiation. Property inequality gives rise to economic differentiation, inequality in the possession of power indicates political differentiation, division by type of activity, differing in the level of prestige, gives grounds to talk about professional differentiation.

In modern Western sociology, based on a multidimensional approach, different dimensions of stratification are distinguished: based on gender, age, race, property status, education, etc.

However, social differentiation is only one component of social stratification. Another, no less important, is social assessment.

American sociologist T. Parsons emphasized that social hierarchy is determined by the cultural standards and values prevailing in society. In accordance with this, in different societies, with the change of eras, the criteria determining the status of an individual or group changed.

Social inequality - This is a type of social division in which individual members of society or groups are at different levels of the social ladder (hierarchy) and have unequal opportunities, rights and responsibilities.

Basic inequality indicators:

different levels of access to resources, both physical and moral (for example, women in Ancient Greece who were not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games);
different working conditions.

Causes of social inequality.

French sociologist Emile Durkheim identified two causes of social inequality:

The need to reward the best in their field, that is, those who bring great benefit to society.
People have different levels of personal qualities and talent.

Robert Michels put forward another reason: protection of the privileges of power. When a community exceeds a certain number of people, they nominate a leader, or an entire group, and give him greater powers than everyone else.

Criteria of social inequality.

Key inequality criteria Max Weber stated:

Wealth (income differences).
Prestige (difference in honor and respect).
Power (difference in the number of subordinates).

Hierarchy of inequality.

There are two types of hierarchy, which are usually represented as geometric shapes: pyramid(a handful of oligarchs and a huge number of poor people, and the poorer, the greater their number) and rhombus(few oligarchs, few poor people and the bulk are middle class). A diamond is preferable to a pyramid from the point of view of stability of the social system. Roughly speaking, in the diamond-shaped version, middle peasants happy with life will not allow a handful of poor people to stage a coup and civil war. You don't have to go far for an example. In Ukraine, the middle class was far from being the majority, and dissatisfied residents of poor western and central villages overthrew the government in the country. As a result, the pyramid turned over, but remained a pyramid. There are other oligarchs at the top, and at the bottom there is still the majority of the country's population.

Addressing social inequality.

It is natural that social inequality is perceived as social injustice, especially by those who are at the lowest level in the hierarchy of social division. In modern society, the issue of social inequality is under the control of social policy bodies. Their responsibilities include:

Introduction of various compensations for socially vulnerable segments of the population.
Help for poor families.
Benefits for the unemployed.
Determination of the minimum wage.
Social insurance.
Development of education.
Healthcare.
Ecological problems .
Improvement of workers' qualifications.

Social inequality is a form of social differentiation in which individuals, social groups, layers, classes are at different levels of the vertical social hierarchy and have unequal life chances and opportunities to satisfy needs.

Any society is always structured on many grounds - national, social class, demographic, settlement, etc. Structuring, that is, people belonging to certain social, professional, socio-demographic groups, can give rise to social inequality. Even natural genetic or physical differences between people can form the basis for the formation of unequal relationships. But the main thing in society is those differences, those objective factors that give rise to social inequality among people. Inequality is an enduring fact of every society. Ralf Dahrendorf wrote: “Even in a prosperous society, the unequal status of people remains an important enduring phenomenon... Of course, these differences are no longer based on direct violence and legal norms on which the system of privileges in a caste or class society was based. However, in addition to more gross divisions according to the size of property and income, prestige and power, our society is characterized by many rank differences - so subtle and at the same time so deeply rooted that claims about the disappearance of all forms of inequality as a result of equalizing processes can be perceived, at least, with skepticism." .

Social are those differences that are generated by social factors: division of labor, way of life, social roles performed by individuals or social groups.

The essence of social inequality lies in the unequal access of different categories of the population to social benefits, such as money, power and prestige.

The problem of social inequality:

1. The meaning of social classes

Belonging to a particular social class has a much greater influence on people's behavior and thinking than other aspects of social life, and it determines their life chances.

First, in order to survive, members of the upper classes of society need to spend a smaller share of available resources than representatives of lower social classes

Secondly, representatives of the upper classes have more non-material wealth. Their children are more likely to attend prestigious schools and are more likely to perform better than the children of parents of lower social status.

Thirdly, wealthy people have a higher average active life expectancy than poor people.

Fourthly, people with higher incomes experience greater satisfaction from life than people who are less wealthy, since belonging to a certain social class influences their lifestyle - the amount and nature of consumption of goods and services. To summarize, we can say that a person’s social class determines almost all areas of his life.

2. Social inequality.

Inequality and poverty are concepts closely related to social stratification. Inequality characterizes the uneven distribution of society's scarce resources - money, power, education and prestige - between different strata, or layers of the population. The main measure of inequality is the amount of liquid assets. This function is usually performed by money. If inequality is represented as a scale, then at one pole there will be those who own the most (the rich), and at the other - the least (the poor) amount of goods. Thus, poverty is the economic and sociocultural state of people who have a minimum amount of liquid assets and limited access to social benefits.

While inequality characterizes society as a whole, poverty affects only part of the population. Depending on how high the level of economic development of a country is, poverty affects a significant or insignificant part of the population. Sociologists refer to the scale of poverty as the proportion of a country's population (usually expressed as a percentage) living at the official poverty line, or threshold.

Below the poor in the social hierarchy are the beggars and the disadvantaged. In Russia, the poor included poor, underprivileged, and exploited peasants. Poverty was extreme poverty. A beggar was a person who lives on alms and collects alms. But not everyone living in absolute poverty should be called beggars. The poor live either on earnings or on pensions and benefits, but they do not beg. It is more correct to include the category of those living in poverty who earn their living by regular begging as beggars.

Ways to solve social inequality

social inequality society class

The main ways of implementing social policy are:

1. protecting the standard of living by introducing various forms of compensation for price increases and indexing;
2. providing assistance to the poorest families;
3. provision of assistance in case of unemployment;
4. ensuring social insurance policy, establishing a minimum wage for workers;
5. development of education, health protection, and the environment mainly at the expense of the state;
6. pursuing an active policy aimed at ensuring qualifications.