NAME:OLADIMEJI BUSOLA VICTORIA

MATRIC NO:16/77JD110
DEPARTMENT:SOCIOLOGY
LEVEL:300
COURSE CODE:SOC303
COURSE TITLE:SOCIAL INEQUALITY
ASSIGNMENT
Question: IS POWER A DETERMINANT FOR SOCIAL INEQUALITY?

From the beginning, man has always had insatiable want and unsatisfied
desires and this thirst for more has often led to everyday class struggle in many
societies today but the question here is that how does this thirst for more
(wealth, power, etc),is power really a determinant for social inequality ?

What does social inequality have to do with power?

Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are
distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender
specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It
is the differentiation preference of access of social goods in the society
brought about by power, religion, kinship, prestige, race, ethnicity,
gender, age, sexual orientation, and class. The social rights include
labor market, the source of income, health care, and freedom of speech,
education, political representation, and participation.[1] Social inequality
linked to economic inequality, usually described on the basis of
the unequal distribution of income or wealth, is a frequently studied type
of social inequality. Though the disciplines
of economics and sociology generally use different theoretical
approaches to examine and explain economic inequality, both fields are
actively involved in researching this inequality. However, social and
natural resources other than purely economic resources are also
unevenly distributed in most societies and may contribute to social
status. Norms of allocation can also affect the distribution
of rights and privileges, social power, access to public goods such
as education or the judicial system,

adequate housing, transportation, credit and financial services such

as banking and other social goods and services.

What is power?

Power is a complex concept which includes the ability or capacity to do, or to

not do, something. It also includes exercising influence, control or force through
a variety of means. Power, or lack of power, can have an important impact on
peoples’ circumstances and therefore on their health.

Power doesn’t belong to one person, but exists in the relationships between
people and groups of people. These power relationships can be visible and
obvious, but are often hidden and covert.

Power is also context specific, in that people can have a lot of power in some
situations but they can be powerless in others.

In social science and politics, power is the ability to influence or

outright control the behaviour of people. The term "authority" is often
used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power
can be seen as evil or unjust, this sort of primitive exercise of power is
historically endemic to humans, however as social beings the same
concept is seen as good and as something inherited or given for
exercising humanistic objectives that will help, enable and move
people.[1] In general, it is derived by the factors of interdependence
between two entities and the environment. In business, the ethical
instrumentality of power is achievement, and as such it is a zero-sum
game. In simple terms it can be expressed as being "upward" or
"downward". With downward power, a company's superior influences
subordinates for attaining organizational goals. When a company exerts
upward power, it is the subordinates who influence the decisions of their
leader or leaders.[2]

The two social factors are intertwined in at least three ways.

First, a class system constitutes a set of social inequalities within

which there are deep conflicts of interest. So a class system sets the
stage for the exercise of power; various groups have an interest in
wielding power over others within a class system. Ascendant groups
have an interest in sustaining the productive economic activities of
subordinates whom they exploit, and they have an interest in
squelching acts of resistance. But likewise, subordinate groups have
an interest in using instruments of power to reduce or overturn the
exploitative social relations within which they function.

Second, a class system assigns resources and positions to different

groups and individuals that greatly influence the nature and weight
of the instruments and tactics of power available to them. Owners
have economic assets, alliances, and the state in their column.
Producers have their numbers and their key locations in the
economic process. A strike of rail workers is a substantial exercise of
power, given the centrality of transport in a complex economy. So
the particulars of a class system provide key determinants of the
distribution of power within society.

Third, a class system also creates a subjectivity of power,

powerlessness, and resistance that may iterate into new forms of the
exercise of power. It may be an effective instrument of social control
to cultivate a subjectivity of powerlessness in subordinate groups.
And likewise, it may be materially empowering to subordinate
groups to cultivate a culture of resistance -- by making collective
action and solidarity more attainable, for example.

These are several ways in which facts about class and power
intertwine. But power is wielded for non-economic purposes as well
-- effecting the will of the state, achieving ethnic domination, and
influencing culture, for example. So it would be incorrect to imagine
that power is simply the cutting edge of class conflict.

What does social class have to do with power? The two concepts
represent theories about how a modern society works, and there are
some fundamental relationships between them. But at bottom they
are separate social factors that allow for independent forms of social
causation. The first is fundamentally concerned with the economic
structure of a society, the systems through which wealth is created
and distributed, and the second is concerned with the expressions of
politics within a society.

Both class and power can be placed into the dichotomies

of structure and agency. The class system sets some of the
parameters of "structure" within which individuals act, but it also
creates some of the motivations and features of consciousness that
constitute the agency of class actors. The forms of power present in
a given society define some of the features of agency on the basis of
which individuals and groups pursue their goals; but it is also fair to
say that the institutions and social relations that define social power
are also a part of the structured environment of action that is
present in the social world. So both power and class are
simultaneously features of structure and agency within a complex
society; and the configurations created by class and power are
causally inter-related without being isomorphic.

A class system can be defined as a system for producing social wealth

in which productive resources and the results of production are
unevenly divided across different groups. The producing class is
"exploited" by the ascendant class: wealth is transferred from
producers to owners. Serfs and lords, slaves and masters, workers
and owners represent the primary classes of feudalism, ancient
slavery, and nineteenth century capitalism. Within any society there
are groups that fall outside the primary classes -- small traders,
artisans, small farmers, intellectuals. But it is central to Marx's theory
of class, that there is a primary cleavage between owners of the
means of production and the direct producers, and that this cleavage
embodies a fundamental conflict of interest between the two
groups.
"Power" is a compound social characteristic in virtue of which an
individual or group is able to compel the actions or inactions of other
individuals or groups against their will or contrary to their interests,
needs, and desires. Power derives from the ability to impose
coercion -- truncheons, prisons, and punishment; and it derives from
the ability of some agents within society to set the agenda for future
action. Power is needed to get 1.5 million people to leave their
homes in Beijing to make way for Olympics developments. Power is
needed to prevent striking miners from shutting down La Paz. Power
is needed to protect the glittering shop windows of Johannesburg
from disaffected young people. Power is exercised by states --
through military and police, through agencies and bureaucracies,
through legislation; it is exercised by corporations and other large
private organizations; and it is exercised by social movements and
other groups within society.