ABSTRACT
Ralf Dahrendorf traces the origin of social inequality—not in the historical sense but in the sense of its basic sources in any society—to the idea that societies are communities of persons who operate under rules that some members realize more fully in their behavior than others. In terms of intellectual history, the same process meant that the question of the origin of inequality was now phrased in a new and different— sociological—manner. Inequality is necessary because without it the differentiated positions of societies cannot be adequately filled. The origin of social inequality lies neither in human nature nor in a historically dubious conception of private property. Possibly social inequality has some importance for the integration of societies. If it is true that inequalities among men follow from the very concept of societies as moral communities, then there cannot be in the world of our experience, a society of absolute equals.
