ABSTRACT
In the United States, the influence of egalitarian sociologists was such in the 1960s that the doctrine of self-perpetuation of the ruling class took on the force of gospel there. This is why Jencks caused surprise beyond measure when he showed that, for example, in that country the level of education had an extremely weak influence on income. For similar reasons Girod was poorly received in Europe when he showed-on basis of longitudinal analysis by cohorts-that the inequalities due to contingencies were no less worthy of holding the attention than the inequalities due to structures, in other words that date of birth is a no less interesting factor than original social class. Propositions such as these contradict the dominant theories of the 1960s. In addition, these theories had the ‘disadvantage’ of registering an ‘indefiniteness’ the interpretation of which required more subtle theories than that of the self-reproduction of the ruling class.
Egalitarianism, Measurement, Minorities, Professions, Social Stratification, Status.
