Conflict_Theory

Conflict Theory Conflict theory sociologists say that society is made up of groups that compete for scarce resources. It established that power and social inequality are main characteristics of society. Karl Marx is the founder of CT. He felt that the key to history is class struggle. Marx theorized that there were only two groups: the bourgeoisie or capitalists that control the means of production and the proletariat or working class who are a mass of exploited laborers. Later CT adherents proposed different class structures. Wright defined four classes (Capitalist, Petty Bourgeoisie, managers and workers). Gilbert & Kahl proposed 6 classes (Capitalist, upper middle, lower middle, working class, working poor, and under class). There are three determining factors in social class: wealth, power and prestige or respect. People generally rank very similar in all three dimensions. Sutherland, a functional perspective sociologist, coined the term “white collar crime” to describe crimes committed by distinguished and high social status people during the course of their occupation. White-collar crime, also called crimes in the suites, costs the US more than twice that of crime in the streets. It occurs when privileged members of society encounter “opportunities” to better their financial class, power, crime, working, society, capitalist, social, edwards, crimes, white-collar, system, probably, position, make, groups, few, ct, wright, wouldn’t, top, three, theory, term, suites, stabilize, regardless, punished, proposed, powerful, people, middle, members, marx, made, justice