Essay Sample on Understanding Social Stratification in China & the UK

Introduction

The society of China and the U.K. are stratified into social classes. Individuals within these countries are hierarchically categorized depending on consideration of certain factors. Such factors are occupation, wealth, income, educational achievements, and so on. For instance, Chinese citizens are divided into nine social classes. The bottom to top hierarchy is as follows: destitute, underclass, very marginalized, marginalized, squeezed, very comfortable, privileged, powerbrokers, bigwigs and lastly head honchos. On the other hand, Britons are grouped into three social classes, namely the high class, which comprises Britons from good backgrounds who are closely followed by the middle with vast experience of work and high educational attainments, and lastly, the low having lower educational attainments. The Queen is the head of state, and there exists a parliament serving as a legislative body in U.K., making it a constitutional monarchy. The U.K. is a capitalist state contrary to China, which is a communist nation ruled by majorly the Communist Party. The paper is premised on how the social structure between U.K. and China is different.

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To begin with, both China and the U.K. have categorized their societies following different factors of consideration. The social classes that exist in China are divided based on factors such as power, occupation, income, and social status. For instance, the founder, Jack Ma, of Alibaba Group Holding Limited, which is a Chinese international conglomerate company dealing in retail, e-commerce, technology, and internet belongs to the topmost social class in China (Chen, 2016). The Chairman of China is also under the head honchos social class. Political Power is a crucial factor Chinese considers in the division of the social classes. The top social classes in China are dominated by not only the wealthy business people but also retired political leaders (Chen, 2016). On the side of U.K., the social classes are divided based on wealth and social status. U.K. being a constitutional monarchy with the Queen as the head of state, royalty is of significance (Braun, 2011). The royal household is viewed as the topmost household in UK thus bequeathed highest social status. The members of the royal household, the Queen Elizabeth family members belong to the high class which is the top social class. Unlike, China where all the wealthy people belong to the top social class, U.K. wealthy individuals are not categorized under the top social class since their social status is below that of the royal households. In the past, mainly during the 19th Century, members of the royal households were the only people in conferred with exclusive rights to put on Burberry products. Even those individuals who were very rich who were in a position to afford Burberry products were not granted these rights.

The U.K. incorporates language, gender, and race in division of its social classes while China the trio serves to eliminate discrimination. Racial discrimination is deeply rooted in U.K. in nearly all spheres of life, be it political, economic, or social. For that reason, majority of black people found themselves in the bottom social class groupings. Racial discrimination cultivates into inadequate economic empowerment of black people as well as lowering their self-esteem which eventually impacts negatively on their livelihoods (Braun, 2011). U.K. has bicameral parliament with both the houses ailing from racism. It is rare to find black political leaders in any of the two houses of legislation. Some political positions also have been set aside for women. Language is equally a key factor considered in U.K (Braun, 2011) since employers prefer issuing jobs to the white people who speak British English. On the part of China, all the 56 nationalities are adequately represented without any discrimination. The minority groups in China have political leaders representing them, making China be a more inclusive nation compared with U.K. China is endowed with rich cultural diversity, which is a preserved heritage making language not to be factored in social class groupings (Chen, 2016). In the past, urban China was faced with occupational segregation of women and gender economic inequalities. Men reaped well in wages compared to women with economical work carried out by men. Today, professional selection factors in women have eliminated gender inequity which dominated in the past. For that reason, considerable number of women have been empowered economically in China.

Over recent years, the number of individuals in both China and U.K. in the existing social classes differs. On the side of U.K., the low social class comprises immigrants from poor nations whose majority are unemployed and engages in low skilled jobs with peanuts pay. As a result of less revenue, they struggle to make ends meet heightening poverty levels in U.K. The immigrants constitute approximately 13% of the entire population in U.K (Savage et., 2013). Experts have implied that if the number of immigrants in U.K. could be reduced then a greater percentage of Britons would belong to the middle social class level. Away from immigrants, majority of the population in U.K. falls under the high and middle social classes. It is estimated that nearly 50% of Britons belong to the middle social class since the education and medical care fields are more developed (Hughes et al., 2006). Those who occupy the bottom social class in U.K. are also able to be elevated to middle social class through the available welfare systems (Wang & Sun, 2017). The welfare systems work effectively in provision of relief payments to the low social class individuals. The Chinese citizens on their part, belong to the last four social classes namely; the destitute, the underclass, the very marginalized, and the marginalized (Zhang & Yao, 2016). As a result of the economic development process in China, the gap between the poor and rich continues to broaden. Significant concentration has been channeled towards industrialization, therefore, rendering limited attention to medical care and education fields. As a result, more than 70% of the population of China falls under the last four social classes, mainly attributed to the high illiteracy levels.

Conclusion

In summary, the U.K. has its majority of population in the middle social class compared with China whose significant population belongs to the low social class. The U.K. is a capitalist society hence provides social amenities such as education and medical care to the less fortunate and does not directly influence the economic market. As a result, U.K. has an advantage over China, which is a communist state where all the economic exclusive rights and freedoms belong to the government and not the citizens. It is undoubtedly that effective management of the diverse population of China is difficult to achieve through communism. For that reason, a significant population of China falls under the last four existing social classes.

References

Braun, Y. A. (2011). The Reproduction of Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and the Social Organization of Work at Sites of Large-Scale Development Projects. Social Problems, 58(2), pp. 281-303.

Chen, J., & Lu. C. (2011). Democratization and the Middle Class in China: The Middle Class's Attitudes toward Democracy. Political Research Quarterly, 64(3), pp. 705-719.

Chen, M. (2016). Self-Assessed Health and Perceptions of Fairness in Metropolitan China: A Social Capital Perspective. Development and Society, 45(3), pp. 411-438.

Hughes, C., et al. (2006). Editorial: Gender, Class, and "Race" in Lifelong Learning: Policy and Practice in the UK and EU. British Educational Research Journal, 32(5), pp. 643-648.

Savage, M., et al. (2013). A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC's Great British Survey Experiment. Sociology, 47(2), pp. 219-250.

Wang, Z., & Sun, L. (2017). Social Class and Voter Turnout in China: Local Congress Elections and Citizen-Regime Relations. Political Research Quarterly, 70(2), pp. 243-256.

Zhang, H., & Yao, Y. (2016). Marketization and Market Capacity: The Formation of Middle Class in China -an Empirical Study in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. Development and Society, 45(3), pp. 389-409.