EXCERPTS FROM RALF DAHRENDORF’s

CLASS AND CLASS CONFLICT IN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

JOHN N. ABLETIS, UPD-CSSP-MASocio

from Ownership and Control, or the Decomposition of Capital

Dominance of joint-stock companies in all branches of economic activity in the 18OOs and early 1900s

“…by separating ownership and control, the joint-stock company reduces the distance between manager and worker while at the same time removing the owners altogether from the sphere of production and thereby isolating their function as exploiters of others.” (p. 106)

continuation…

“…the homogenous capitalist class predicted by Marx has in fact not developed. Capital—and thereby capitalism—has dissolved and given way in the economic sphere, to a plurality of partly agreed, partly competing, and partly simply different groups.” (p. 106) Effect to class conflict in threefold:

change in the composition of the groups participating in conflict

change in the nature of the issues that cause conflicts

change in the patterns of conflict

continuation…

“Changes in the composition of conflict groups, of the issues, and of patterns of conflict do not imply the abolition of conflict or even of the specific conflict between management and labor in industry.” (p. 107) – conflict is inherent

from Skill and Stratification, or the Decomposition of Labor

“The working class today, far from being homogeneous of group of equally unskilled and impoverished people, is in fact a stratum differentiated by numerous subtle and not-so-subtle distinctions… [characterized by a] plurality of roles that are endowed with diverging and often conflicting expectations…” (p. 107)

Contrary to Marx’s expectation of an increasing homogeneity of the working class as a consequence of the intensification of class struggle

continuation…

Three skill group within the labor force of advanced capitalism: Highly skilled workmen who increasingly

merge with both engineers and white-collar employees

Semi-skilled workers with high degree of diffuse as well as specific industrial experience

dwindling stratum of totally unskilled laborers who are characteristically either newcomers to industry or semi-unemployables

continuation…

“The hierarchy of skill corresponds exactly to the hierarchy of responsibility and delegated authority within the working class… [these correspond to a] hierarchy of prestige…” (p. 107)

The proletariat of early capitalism was replaced by less depraved, but equally alienated successor, the worker

“Bond of workers for specific goals… [all these indicating into a] change of the issues and…patterns of conflict…” (p. 108)

continuation…

“Probably Marx would have agreed that class ‘is a force that unites into groups people who differ from one another, by overriding the difference between them’… but he certainly did not expect the differences to be so great, and the uniting force so precarious as it has turned out to be in the case both of capital and of labor…” (p. 108)

from The Institutionalization of Class Conflict

Theodor Geiger “institutionalization of class conflict… the tension between capital and labor is recognized as a principle of the structure of the labor market and has become a legal institution of society… The methods, weapons, and techniques of the class struggle are recognized—and are thereby brought under control. The struggle evolves according to certain rules of the game…” (p. 108)

The ability of the capitalist society to cope with the class conflict generated by its structure [hence, contrary to Marx’s claims]

continuation…

forms of institutionalization “Organization is Institutionalization”(p.

108) Latent functions of Organization organization presupposes the legitimacy of

conflict groups it removes the permanent and incalculable

threat of guerilla warfare it makes systematic regulations of conflicts

possible Industrial citizenship political citizenship

continuation…

“ Instead of a battlefield, the scene of group conflict has become a kind of market in which relatively autonomous forces contend according to certain rules of the game, by virtue of which nobody is a permanent winner or loser.” (p. 109)

from Power and Authority

the distribution of [power and ] authority as the determining factor of systematic social conflicts of a type that is germane to class conflicts. “Differentiation of groups engaged in such conflicts follows the lines of differentiation of roles that are relevant from the point of view of the exercise of authority” (p. 109)

continuation…

Power is the “probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests” (Weber)

Authority is the “probability that a command with a given specific content will be obeyed by a given group of persons” (Weber), it is the legitimate use of power

continuation…

group conflicts are not the product of structurally fortuitous relations of power but come forth wherever authority is exercised…

characteristics of Authority Relations (pp. 109-110) Authority relations are always relations of

super-and subordination. Where there are authority relations, the

superordinate element is socially expected [or has the role] to control, by orders and commands, warnings and prohibitions, the behavior of the subordinate element.

continuation…

such expectations attach to relatively permanent positions rather than to the character of individuals; they are in this sense legitimate.

by virtue of this fact, they always involve specification of the persons subject to control and of the spheres within which control is permissible. Authority, as distinct from power, is never a relation of generalized control over others.

noncompliance with authoritative commands can be sanctioned; it is one functions of the legal system (and of course of quasi-legal customs and norms) to support the effective exercise of legitimate authority.

continuation…

imperatively coordinated associations –“associations of people controlled by a hierarchy of authority positions” (Ritzer, 2003, p. 99). Resembling social systems in the analysis of integration.

domination and subjection, “within every association, those in dominant positions seek to maintain the status quo while those in subordinate positions seek change.” (Ritzer, 2003, p. 99)… “being dichotomous, it is, in ay given association, the cause of the formation of two and only two, conflict groups.”(Dahrendorf, 2001, p. 111, emphasis mine)

continuation…

since domination in the state, or a church, or other associations, total societies can present the picture of a plurality of competing dominant (and, conversely, subjected aggregates.” (p. 110, italics mine)

Within [associations], the distribution of authority always sums up to zero

“Authority is both a more general and more significant social relation [than property relations].” (p. 111)

Bibliography

Dahrendorf, R. (2001, orig. pub. 1953), Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. In D. E. Grusky (Ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective, 2nd ed., Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 105-111

Ritzer, G. (2003), Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics, NY: McGraw-Hill

EXCERPTS FROM ERIK OLIN WRIGHT’s CLASS BOUNDARIES AND CONTRADICTORY CLASS LOCATIONS, VARIETIES OF MARXIST CONCEPTIONS OF CLASS STRUCTURE, A GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE ANALYSIS OF CLASS STRUCTURE, AND CLASS, CRISIS, AND THE STATE

JOHN N. ABLETIS, UPD-CSSP-MASocio

Four broadly different strategies that Marxists have adopted to deal with the conceptual problem of nonpolarized class relations (3,p. 116)

1. The class structure of advanced capitalist societies really is polarized; the “middle class” is strictly an ideological illusion.

2. The middle class should be viewed as a segment of some other class, typically a “new petty bourgeoisie” or “new working class.”

3. The middle class is really a “new class” in its own right, completely distinct from either the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, or the petty bourgeoisie.

4. Positions aggregated under the [term] “middle class” are not really in a class at all [but] should be viewed as locations that are simultaneously in more than one class [i.e. “contradictory locations within class relations”].

from Class Boundaries and Contradictory Class Locations

“The concept of contradictory locations within class relations, however, does not refer to problems of pigeon-holing people within an abstract typology; rather it refers to objective contradictions among the real processes of class relations.” (p. 113)

The Processes of Class Relations (1, p.114)

Three interconnected structural changes in the course of capitalist development Loss of control over the labor process by workers

occurred gradually over a long period of time worker’s control over their own labor as a constraint on

the accumulation process of early capitalism 19th century, rise of factories, factory owner had much

greater control over the length of the working day, and generally over other aspects of the labor process as well

employment of technical innovations which deskilled the labor force. Close supervision is much easier when tasks are simple and routinized, their pace is determined by machinery

development of assembly line… workers became human component of machinery itself.

continuation…

as technology changes, new skills are needed and new categories of jobs are created in which the worker may have greater immediate control over the labour process… “human relations” approaches to the problem of worker productivity. ex. “worker participation” –redesigning of jobs to increase both employee motivation and productivity

“While new skills are continually being created, it is also true that there is constant pressure to reduce the skill levels needed to perform a given task,” (1, p. 115) ex. typists, operating computers

continuation…

The differentiation of the functions of capital functional differentiation between economic

ownership and possession as the scale of both ownership and production increases, it

becomes less and less practical for same individuals to be equally involved in both functions. Competitive pressures will tend to push capitalists to hire professional managers to deal with specific aspects of production…

partial dissociation between legal ownership and economic ownership (dispersion of stock ownership)

as long as capitalist relations of production remain embedded in the legal superstructure of private property, formal legal ownership is in general a necessary condition for economic ownership

formal title is not a sufficient condition for actual participation in the control of the investment and accumulation process

continuation…

The development of complex hierarchies on the relations of production

control of the physical means of production control of labor

Three [interdependent] central processes [or dimensions] underlying the basic capital-labor relationship control over the physical means of production (physical capital) control over labour power (labour capital) control over investments and resource allocation (money

capital)

“These relations can be characterized as relations of domination and subordination because each relation simultaneously defines those positions that have the capacity to control the particular resource and those that are excluded from such control.” (2, p. 112)

continuation…

“While these three dimensions of social relations are intrinsically interdependent, there is still a clear hierarchy of determination among them. The social relations of control over money capital structure, or set limits upon, the relations of control over physical capital, which in turn limit the direct control over labor within production.” (2, p. 112)

continuation…

“The fundamental class antagonism between workers and capitalists can be viewed as a polarization on each of these three underlying processes or dimensions.” (1, p. 121)

“When the capitalist system is analyzed at the highest level of abstraction—the level of the pure capitalist mode of production—these are the only class positions defined by capitalist relations of production. When we move to the new lower level of abstraction—level of the social formation—other class positions appear.” (1, p. 121)

The Basic Class Relations of Capitalist Society

CAPITALIST MODE OF PRODUCTION

SIMPLE COMMODITY PRODUCTION

BOURGEOISIE

PROLETARIAT

PETTY BOURGEOISIE

Manager and Supervisors

Semi-autonomous

Wage-earners

Small Employers

Classes

Contradictory Locations within Class Relations

Table 1. Hierarchical Levels Within Ownership Relations (1, p. 120)

RELATIONS OF ECONOMIC OWNERSHIP

(CONTROL OVER WHAT IS PRODUCED)

RELATIONS OF POSSESSION (CONTROL OVER HOW THINGS ARE PRODUCED)

LEGAL OWNERSHIP

CONTROL OF MEANS OF

PRODUCTION

CONTROL OVER LABOUR POWER

Full Control Control over the overall investment and

accumulation process

Control over the entire apparatus of production

Control over the entire supervisory hierarchy

Sufficient stock to ensure influence on investment and

accumulation

Partial Control Participation in decisions concerning either sub-

units of the total production process or

partial aspects of the entire investment process

Control over one segment of the total production process

Control over one segment of the supervisory

hierarchy

Sufficient stock to ensure financial stake in profits of

corporation (stock is a significant part of the

income)

Minimal Control Control over what one produces in one’s

immediate labor process

Control over one’s immediate instruments

of production; over how one does one’s own job

Control over the direct producers, over immediate subordinates but not part of the hierarchy as such

Marginal stock ownership (stock is an insignificant part

of the income)

No Control Complete exclusion from participation in decisions

about what to produce

Negligible control over any aspect of the means

of production

No ability to invoke sanctions on other workers

No stock ownership

Table 2. Unambiguous Locations Within Class Relations (1, p. 122)

PROCESSES UNDERLYING CLASS RELATIONS

Economic Ownership Control over

investments and the accumulation process

Possession

Control over physical means of production

Control over the labour power of others

Bourgeoisie + + +Proletariat - - -

Petty bourgeoisie + + -

+ Full Control - No Control

Table 3. Contradictory Locations Within Class Relations (1, p. 123)

SUBSTANTIVE SOCIAL PROCESSES COMPRISING CLASS RELATIONS

JURIDICAL CATEGORIES OF CLASS RELATIONS

Economic Ownership

Control over

investments,

resources

Possession Legal Ownership Wage labour

Control over the physical

production

Control over the labour

power of others

Legal Ownership of

property (capital,

stocks, real estate etc.)

Legal status of being the employer of labour

power

Sale of one’s won

labour power

BourgeoisieTraditional Capitalist

+ + + + + -

Top corporate executive

+ + + Partial + Minimal

Contradictory location between the proletariat and the bourgeoisieTop managersMiddle ManagersTechnocratsForemen/line supervisors

PartialMinimalMinimal

-

+Partial

Minimal-

+Partial

MinimalMinimal

Minimal---

----

Partial+++

Proletariat - - - - - +

Table 3. Contradictory Locations Within Class Relations (1, p. 124)

SUBSTANTIVE SOCIAL PROCESSES COMPRISING CLASS RELATIONS

JURIDICAL CATEGORIES OF CLASS RELATIONS

Economic Ownership

Control over

investments,

resources

Possession Legal Ownership Wage labour

Control over the physical

production

Control over the labour

power of others

Legal Ownership of

property (capital,

stocks, real estate etc.)

Legal status of being the employer of labour

power

Sale of one’s won

labour power

Contradictory location between the proletariat and the petty bourgeoisieSemi-autonomous employees

Minimal Minimal - - - +

Petty bourgeoisie + + - + - -

Contradictory location between the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie Small employers

+ + Minimal + Minimal -

+ Full control Partial: Attenuated control Minimal: Residual control - No control

from Class, Crisis, and the State

The Class Locations of Positions not Directly Determined by Production Relations (p. 92-96) Housewives Students –pre-class positions— “as parts of

class trajectories: a life-time structure of positions through which an individual passes in the course of a work career

Pensioners –post-class locations The unemployed; welfare recipients

continuation…

Employees in political and ideological apparatuses bourgeois positions involving control over

the creation of the state policies in the political apparatuses and the production of ideology in the ideological apparatuses

contradictory locations involving execution of state policies and the dissemination of ideology

proletarian positions involving complete exclusion from either the creation or execution of state policies and ideology

from A General Framework for the Analysis of Class Structure

Wright felt that his early analyses on class relations were not anymore satisfactory

“Exploitation, unlike domination, intrinsically implies a set of opposing material interests.”

“Domination-centered concepts of class also tend to slide into what can be termed “the multiple oppressions” approach to understanding society.

continuation…

John Roemer’s Account of Class and Exploitation Exploitation implies both economic

oppression and appropriation of at lest part of the social surplus by the oppressor.

In Marxian exploitation one class appropriates the surplus labor performed by another class through various mechanisms. The income of the exploiting class comes from the labor performed by the exploited class.

The Labor-Transfer Approach Market-based exploitation is strictly a

consequence of inequalities in the distribution of the means of production… while this may typically play itself out through a labor market, this is only one concrete institutional form for such exploitation…

continuation…

The Game-Theory Approach Asking if a coalition of players would be

better off if they withdrew from the game under certain specified procedures Ex. That the welfare of S’ is causally dependent

upon the derivation of S.

continuation…

3 kinds of exploitation and the Withdrawal Rule Feudal exploitation (leaving with one’s

personal assets) Capitalist exploitation (through withdrawal of

per capita share of society’s total productive assets)

Socialist exploitation (per capita share of inalienable assets)

Skilled vs. the highly skilled, maintaining skill differentials –skill based exploitation or when scarce skills receive incomes above the costs of producing those skills….

continuation…

Class and Exploitation The material basis of exploitation is

inequalities in distributions of productive assets, or what is commonly referred to as property relations… inequalities of assets are sufficient to account for transfers of labor surplus… different forms of asset inequality specify different forms of exploitation. Classes are then defined as positions within the social relations of exploitations.

continuation…

Property-relations define classes by the productive assets that classes control, which lead them to adopt certain strategies within exchange relations and which thereby determine the outcomes of those market transactions.

Inventory of Productive assets Labor power -personal asset [Physical] means of production (alienable,

physical) Skill –inalienable asset Organization –technical division of labor

among producers, way the production process is organized

continuation…

Assets, Exploitation, and Classes (3, p.124)

Type of class structure

Principal asset that is

unequally distributed

Mechanism of exploitation

Classes Central task of revolutionary

transformation

Feudalism Labor power Coercive extraction of surplus value

Lords and serfs

Individual liberty

Capitalism Means of production

Market exchanges of labor power

and commodities

Capitalists and workers

Socializing means of

production

State bureaucratic

socialism

Organization Planned appropriation

and distribution of surplus based on hierarchy

Managers/bureaucrats

and nonmanageme

nt

Democratization of

organizational control

Socialism Skills Negotiated redistribution

of surplus from workers to

experts

Experts and workers

Substantive equality

Basic Typology of Exploitation and Class (3, p.126)

Assets in the means of production

Owners Nonowners (wage laborers)

1. Bourgeoisie 4. Expert manager

7. Semicredentialed manager

10. Uncredentialed manager

+

2. Small employer 5. Expert supervisor

8. Semicredentialed supervisor

11. Uncredentialed supervisor

Organization>0

assets

3. Petty bourgeoisie

6. Expert nonmanager

9. Semicredentialed worker

12. Proletarian-

+ >0Skill assets

-

Bibliography

1. Wright, E. O. (1982, orig. pub. 1978). Class Boundaries and Contradictory Class Locations. In A. Giddens & D. Held (Eds.), Classes, Power, and Conflict, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 112-129

2. Wright, E. O. (2001, orig. pub. 1980). Varieties of Marxist Conceptions of Class Structure. In D. Grusky (Ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective, Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 112-116

3. Wright, E. O. (2001, orig. pub. 1984). A General Framework for the Analysis of Class Structure. In D. Grusky (Ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective, Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 116-128

4. Wright, E. O. (1979). Class, Crisis, and the State, London: Verso Edition