Revision summary
Davis and Moore: unequal reward places talent in important roles. Tumin: tautology and wasted talent. Marx and Weber: class exploitation and status closure. Caste and unpaid care invert the functional premise. A placement function in some jobs does not justify inherited hierarchy.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore argued that stratification is functional because unequal reward places the talented in important roles. Evaluation must test that claim against waste, conflict, and honour systems such as caste.
Body
The functional claim
- Some positions are more necessary and harder to fill.
- Unequal prestige and pay motivate training.
- Stratification is thus a device of placement, not a mere injustice.
Critiques
- Melvin Tumin: barriers of birth waste talent; the theory is tautological about “importance”.
- Karl Marx: stratification is exploitation, functional for a class, not for “society”.
- Max Weber: status honour can block the market the functionalists need.
- Caste in India assigns rank by birth. M. N. Srinivas’s Sanskritisation is group mimicry, not open sorting.
- Gender: unpaid care, after Ann Oakley, is vital work with low reward, which inverts the Davis-Moore premise.
Partial use
- Some credential races do sort skills in modern labour markets.
- That is compatible with large non-functional residues of ascription.
Verdict
- Stratification is functional for reproducing a given order.
- It is not shown to be functionally necessary in its actual, inherited form.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD DM[Davis Moore] --> F[Placement function] TUM[Tumin Marx Weber] --> CRIT[Waste exploitation honour] CASTE[Caste gender] --> CRIT F --> PART[Partial in labour markets]
Conclusion
The Davis-Moore thesis overstates a placement function and understates birth, caste, gender, and class power. Stratification can coordinate a division of labour. That does not make existing hierarchies the optimal or just device for society as a whole.
Quick related
Students also ask
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What is the difference between anomie in Merton and Durkheim? Explain.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2018 · Q3(c)). View answer →
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Without inequality, would no one train for medicine?
Motivation can be honour, public pay, and vocation. Extreme inherited inequality is not required.
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Is all critique Marxist?
No. Tumin and feminist care arguments are not the same as surplus-value theory.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2019 · Q1(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Davis and Moore made it clear that social stratification is a functional necessity and also an unconscious device. Discuss -
2018 · Q8(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
In what way did Durkheim perceive religion as functional to society? -
2016 · Q2(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
Describe the functional prerequisites of social system as given by Talcott Parsons. Examined in the context of a university as a social system. -
2023 · Q6(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
Explain Max Weber's theory of social stratification. How does Weber's idea of class differ from that of Marx? -
2022 · Q4(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
Social stratification is claimed to contribute to maintenance of social order and stability in society. Critically assess.
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