ABSTRACT
The concept of social class, in distinction from the earlier concepts of hierarchy, is late eighteenth century. Central to sociology's interest in stratification is its sharp distinction, from Tocqueville on, between social class and social status. This chapter suggests a kind of ideal type, a theoretical model, of what substantive social class is and what its political and economic power in society might be. The clue to the modern order lies for Alexis Tocqueville in the relentless leveling of classes that has characterized the history of the West since the end of the Middle Ages. Whereas Karl Marx with his progressive philosophy of history treated social class as organizational and dynamic in modern society, it was inevitable that Ferdinand Tonnies would see the matter very differently. The distinction between political power, economic class, and social status is brought to full theoretical explicitness in Max Weber's work.
