Societies are often categorized into systems of stratification according to the degrees of inequality and vertical social mobility that characterize them. Conflict theory says stratification exists because of discrimination against, and blocked opportunities for, the have-nots of society.

Auguste Comte was the first to develop the concept of “sociology.” He defined sociology as a positive science. Positivism is the search for “invariant laws of the natural and social world.” Comte identified three basic methods for discovering these invariant laws, observation, experimentation, and comparison.

He felt that occupational groups ought to participate in government, thereby checking the excesses of individual passions, on the one hand, and oppressive bureaucracy on the other. Occupational groups would also function as social organizations.

There are several sociological perspectives and they all have different ideas and theories about class and inequality, including Marxist (Karl Marx a conflict theory) and Functionalist (Emile Durkheim, Robert Merton a structural consensus theory). Marxism was introduced by Karl Marx (1818-1883).

One similarity between Marxism and Functionalism is that they are both macro-sociological, structural theories. This means they both look at society as a whole and believe that society is made up of more than the individuals that live within it and emphasis the importance of social institutions and structures.

Marxism believes that culture is an instrument of social control and a source of power for the dominant class. However, Functionalists believe that culture is a means of institutionalising people into the shared norms and values. Marxism emphasis socialisation into a capitalist society only benefits the ruling class.

Conflict theorists (Marxists and Feminists) point out that Functionalists have a rose tinted view of society – they focus too much on the positive functions that institutions perform, ignoring the negative ways in which institutions and socialisation can have on certain people.

This perspective is a macro-level approach most identified with the writings of German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx (1818–1883), who saw society as being made up of individuals in different social classes who must compete for social, material, and political resources such as food and housing, employment.

The functionalist perspective sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation and broadly focuses on the social structures that shape society as a whole.

Functionalism has been criticized for downplaying the role of individual action, and for being unable to account for social change. Critics also argue that functionalism is unable to explain social change because it focuses so intently on social order and equilibrium in society.

The main difference between functionalism and conflict theory is that the functionalism states that each aspect of a society serves a function and are necessary for the survival of that society while the conflict theory states that a society is in perpetual class conflict due to the limitation and the unequal …

Conflict theory, first purported by Karl Marx, is a theory that society is in a state of perpetual conflict because of competition for limited resources. Conflict theory holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than by consensus and conformity.

The Conflict perspective refers to the inequalities that exist in all societies globally. According to the Conflict paradigm, every society is plagued by inequality based on social differences among the dominant group and all of the other groups in society.

Conflict theory sees social life as a competition, and focuses on the distribution of resources, power, and inequality. Unlike functionalist theory, conflict theory is better at explaining social change, and weaker at explaining social stability.

A Marxist socialist society has several core elements: political power held by the working classes, public ownership and democratic management of society’s material means of production, national planning, a substantial degree of economic equality among the people, a high level of productive forces, and a continuing …

Karl Marx saw capitalism as a progressive historical stage that would eventually stagnate due to internal contradictions and be followed by socialism. Marxists define capital as “a social, economic relation” between people (rather than between people and things). In this sense they seek to abolish capital.