Research Paper on:
Social Class Analysis

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
based largely upon an intensive analysis of statistical data. Society is based on people, and since people tend to group together in families, in the workplace and in organizations,  they are best categorized accordingly. Social stratification concerns the study of carefully-defined social classes (The Demographic Transition and Socioeconomic Change). The actual concept of social class dates back  to philosopher Karl Marx, who believed that most of societys conflicts were the result of class discord. Marx originally measured social classes as consisting of two types, the bourgeoisie  and the proletariat (The Demographic Transition and Socioeconomic Change). This was merely two extremes, and did not take into consideration that there might be a group on the center  of equal importance. Furthermore, Karl Marxs theory of social classes, as described in the Communist Manifesto were, according to many contemporary critics, riddled with inconsistencies. One sociologist noted,  "On the one hand he claims there are but three classes (capitalist, landowner, wage-laborer), on the other, he goes on to talk of the small holding peasantry, the farm-laborers, the  intellectuals, and the Lumpenproletariat as classes" (Wacquant 36). It is recommended that the student who is writing about this topic consider that while Marx was revolutionary in his definition  of social class, he was less than accurate in his measurement of them. In order to support his consensus that there would be an inevitable class between master and  slave, i.e., the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, there could only be two classes. However, there were capitalists who could not be classified as either business owners and workers who  still comprised a large portion of society. But since the third group served no purpose in Marxs class struggle argument, they were discarded. This is where German sociologist Max