How Do Elites Maintain Social Inequality?
A. Social stratification is maintained within a nation by elites who control ideas and information, maintain social networks, and use force. B. The control of ideas and information can be remarkably more effective than the use of brute force and is used by elites everywhere to maintain their positions of power whether in dictatorships or in democracies. C. Social networks are also critical in maintaining social stratification because they supply valuable information and tend to perpetuate social inequality. D. Technology, especially monitoring devices, helps the elite maintain its position. E. Underlying the maintenance of stratification is control of social institutions the legal establishment, the police, and the military. VII. Global Stratification: Three Worlds of Development A. Until the 1980s, a simple model was used, consisting of the First World (industrialized, capitalistic nations), Second World (communist nations), and Third World (any nations that didn t fit the other categ
