ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how clubs incorporate and stratify according to functional necessity, focusing on inclusion at the Congress of Vienna and the early formation of G-summitry. It examines how the club achieves stratification according to more collectivist means, making the argument that the same sort of cultural logic that stratified the Family of Civilised Nations and the Great Powers’ club stratifies contemporary G-summitry. There are two means of achieving such intra-group stratification: functional stratification and cultural stratification. Functional stratification involves the incorporation of an actor where their marginalisation is justified on grounds of practicality. The Germans were particularly opposed to the idea of the G20 out of concern for a loss of status resulting from the expansion of G-summitry. Indeed, the Germans were resistant to the expansion of the club when discussions of the incorporation of the O5 were being made, being especially reluctant to expand the G8 to a G13.
