In contrast to the diverse trends that prevailed for most of the postwar period, unionization rates in the advanced capitalist countries generally declined in the 1980s. I propose a discrete-time hazard-rate model to explain this novel pattern of labor disorganization. Model estimates indicate that union decline is related to growing economic openness, unemployment, pre-existing levels of unionization, the decentralization of collective bargaining institutions, and the electoral failure of social democratic parties through the 1980s.

A Modest Test of an Immodest Theory: The Functional Theory of Stratification [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 23-12-2002

Leonard Broom, Robert G. Cushing American Sociological Review. 1977. Vol. 42. No. 1. P. 157-169.

Two hypothesis relating responsibility, reward and performance were designed to test the Davis and Moore functional theory of stratification. Large companies in the private sector of the United States economy were selected as the source of empirical evidence to test the theory. The data base was thought to be favorable to positive findings. The responsibility variable was measured by company assets, reward was measured by total compensation of the chief executive officer, and performance was indexed by several measures of growth and profitability. Over 700 of the largest companies in the United States were grouped into sixteen relatively homogenous business activity types in order to control for (1) scarcities of qualified incumbents, (2) structural differences between industries and (3) market conditions. The results provide limited evidence of a relationship between magnitude of responsibility (functional importance) and executive compensation (reward). No support was found for a hypothesized relationship between company performance, however measured, and executive compensation. Taken as a whole, the results do not confirm the functional theory.

An Asian Route To Capitalism: Religious Economy and the Origins of Self-Transforming Growth in Japan [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 24-05-2004

Randall Collins American Sociological Review. 1997. Vol. 62. No. 6. P. 843-865.

Modern capitalism is a self-transforming dynamic that proliferates market niches, new products, and techniques. The industrial revolution could take place only in the context of preexisting agricultural capitalism; that, in turn, required a breakout from the obstacles constituted by agrarian-coercive societies. Organizational conditions necessary for self-sustaining capitalist growth included markets not only for commodities but for all factors of production (land, labor, and capital), combined under control of entrepreneurs motivated by an economic ethic of future-oriented calculation and investment. Weber was mistaken in holding that the capitalist breakthrough occurred only in Christian Europe. I propose a neo-Weberian model in which the initial breakout from agrarian-coercive obstacles took place within the enclave of religious organizations, with monasteries acting as the first entrepreneurs. The model is illustrated by the case of Buddhism in late medieval Japan. The leading sector of monastic capitalism spread into the surrounding economy through religious movements of mass proselytization which narrowed the gap between clergy and laity. Confiscation of Buddhist property at the transition to the Tokugawa period transferred the capitalist dynamic to the secular economy of an agricultural mass market, opening the way for a distinctive Japanese path through the industrial revolution.

And Then There Were More? The Effect of Organizational Sex Composition on the Hiring and Promotion of Managers [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 22-05-2004

Lisa E. Cohen, Joseph P. Broschak, Heather A. Haveman American Sociological Review. 1998. Vol. 63. No. 5. P. 711-727.

We study how organizational sex composition influences the intraorganizational mobility of male and female managers. We test hypotheses linking organizational sex composition to hiring and promotion using longitudinal data on all managers in the California savings and loan industry. We find that the impact of sex composition depends on hierarchical level: Not only does it matter what relative proportions of men and women are working in organizations, but it also matters at what levels in the managerial hierarchies they are working. Our findings demonstrate a catch-22 situation: Women are more likely to be hired and promoted into a particular job level when a higher proportion of women are already there. The question remains, how can women gain entry into these positions? We also find that women are more likely to be hired and promoted when there is a substantial minority of women above the focal job level, but not when women constitute the majority in those higher-level positions: Hence women in high ranks can sometimes be a force for demographic change. Finally, we find evidence that women are more likely to be hired and promoted when higher proportions of women hold positions below the focal job level, indicating that gains made by women are not entirely dissipated by endogenous organizational processes.

Bad jobs in America: standard and nonstandard employment relations and job quality in the United States [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 29-05-2004

Arne L. Kalleberg, Ken Hudson American Sociological Review. 2000. Vol. 65. No. 2. P. 256-278.

The prevalence of nonstandard jobs is a matter of concern if, as many assume, such jobs are bad. We examine the relationship between nonstandard employment (on-call work and day labor, temporary-help agency employment, employment with contract companies, independent contracting, other self-employment, and part-time employment in "conventional" jobs) and exposure to "bad" job characteristics, using data from the 1995 Current Population Survey. Of workers age 18 and over, 31 percent are in some type of nonstandard employment. To assess the link between type of employment and bad jobs, we conceptualize "bad jobs" as those with low pay and without access to health insurance and pension benefits. About one in seven jobs in the United States is bad on these three dimensions. Nonstandard employment strongly increases workers' exposure to bad job characteristics, net of controls for workers' personal characteristics, family status, occupation, and industry. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Bringing the Firms Back in: Stratification, Segmentation, and the Organization of Work [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 23-12-2002

James N. Baron, William T. Bielby American Sociological Review. 1980. Vol. 45. No. 5. P. 737-765.

This essay examines the shift toward "structural" explanations in recent studies of inequality. After reviewing this body of research and some of its shortcomings, we examine its theoretical underpinnings, comparing "structuralist" perspectives on work organization derived from institutional economics and neo-Marxism to more orthodox accounts based on neoclassical and "industrialism" theories. This discussion suggests areas where the different perspectives overlap and diverge. We conclude that work arrangements within the firm and their trend are the focus of most "structural" perspectives on positional stratification; thus, empirical studies grounded at the organizational level are more likely to inform current debates about the "structure of work" than is the growing body of research about structural effects on individual attainment or covariation among industrial/occupational characteristics. Toward that end, an agenda for future research is outlined, focusing on three aspects of work organization: (a) the units which comprise the structure of work and the dimensions underlying economic segmentation; (b) the effects of sectoral differentiation on technical and administrative arrangements within firms; and (c) temporal changes in how enterprises organize production. We provide some illustrations of the kinds of empirical data and research hypotheses required to link research on segmentation and stratification more closely to studies of organizations.

Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of "Weberian" State Structures on Economic Growth [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 22-05-2004

Peter Evans, James E. Rauch American Sociological Review. 1999. Vol. 64. No. 5. P. 748-765.

The role of bureaucratic authority structures in facilitating economic growth has been a sociological concern since Max Weber's classic contributions almost 100 years ago. Using a recent and original data set, we examine the characteristics of core state economic agencies and the growth records of a sample of 35 developing countries for the 1970-1990 period. Our "Weberianness Scale" offers a simple measure of the degree to which these agencies employ meritocratic recruitment and offer predictable, rewarding long-term careers. We find that these "Weberian" characteristics significantly enhance prospects for economic growth, even when we control for initial levels of GDP per capita and human capital. Our results imply that "Weberianness" should be included as a factor in general models of economic growth. They also suggest the need for more attention by policymakers to building better bureaucracies and more research by social scientists on variations in how state bureaucracies are organized.

Changing Income Inequalities within and between Nations: New Evidence [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 22-05-2004

Brian Goesling American Sociological Review. 2001. Vol. 66. No. 5. P. 745-761.

Fresh data sources on cross-national income are examined to document recent changes in the composition of world income inequality within and between nations. New evidence shows that during the 1980s and 1990s the composition of world income inequality experienced a fundamental change, characterized by the diminishing significance of between-nation income differences and the growing prominence of within-nation inequalities. Two competing trends account for this change: (1) steady growth in the average level of income inequality within nations, and (2) a decline in income inequality between nations. These recent trends signify a reversal in one of the major legacies of the Industrial Revolution-the internationalization of world income inequality across national borders. The findings raise important questions for future studies of cross-national inequality and development.

Class and Class Conflict in Six Western Nations [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 23-12-2002

Jonathan Kelley, Maria D. R. Evans American Sociological Review. 1995. Vol. 60. No. 2. P. 157-178.

People's subjective images of class and class conflict reflect a mixture of both materialist forces and the vivid subjective images of equality and consensus among family, friends, and coworkers. These reference group processes distort perceptions of class: They make most people think they are middle class, thereby weakening the link between objective class and subjective perceptions of class and class conflict, fostering consensual rather than conflictual views of class relations, and attenuating the links between class and politics, particularly in Central European nations. Maximum-likelihood analyses of large, representative national samples from six Western democracies support the argument.

Class Boundaries [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 23-12-2002

Werner S. Landecker American Sociological Review. 1960. Vol. 25. No. 6. P. 868-877.

Class boundaries are conceived as properties of a multiple system of stratification, composed of several rank systems. In each system, the same population is ranked by a different criterion of status. The central question in boundary analysis is: To what extent are the incumbents of any two contiguous ranks of one rank system separated in another? The magnitude of a class boundary is measured by the degree of such separation. This method is applied to the population of Detroit and is used in testing alternative predictions derived, respectively, from "class structure" and "status continuum" hypotheses. The findings suggest that each of these hypotheses is appropriate to a different range within the same stratification system.

Class Consciousness and Political Change: Voting and Political Attitudes in the British Working Class, 1964 to 1970 [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 23-12-2002

David Weakliem American Sociological Review. 1997. Vol. 58. No. 3. P. 382-397.

Most research suggests that changes in political preferences and public opinion are similar for all social groups. I investigate the possibility that prior views of the world, or "ideology," affect responses to new information, and hence changes in opinion. I focus on one type of ideology, levels of class consciousness, using data from opinion surveys of British manual workers in the election years of 1964, 1966, and 1970. Results from a latent class model indicate that changes in political and economic opinions vary with degree of class consciousness. Workers who identified with the working class but held negative attitudes toward unions became considerably more pessimistic about economic conditions and the policies of the Labour Party. This group's behavior may represent either instrumentalism or a perceived conflict between the interests of the working class and the interests of society as a whole. These results cast doubt on conventional views of the relationship between workers' economic interests and support for parties of the left.

Class Crystallization and Class Consciousness [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 23-12-2002

Werner S. Landecker American Sociological Review. 1963. Vol. 28. No. 2. P. 219-229.

Class crystallization is the degree to which mutually equivalent rank levels of different rank systems coincide in their incumbents, thereby forming social classes and class statuses. Through sample interviewing in Detroit, this variable is explored in its bearing on three types of class consciousness. Evidence regarding two of these, class status consciousness and class interest consciousness, suggests a positive relationship with class crystallization. This finding does not hold for class barrier consciousness which, instead, is fostered by the joint impact of weak crystallization and low status. To account for these diverse results, a distinction between cognitive and affective modes of class consciousness is proposed.

Class Formation without Class Struggle: An Elite Conflict Theory of the Transition to Capitalism [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 23-12-2002

Richard Lachmann American Sociological Review. 1990. Vol. 55. No. 3. P. 398-414.

An elite conflict model is compared to past work on elites and to a variety of Marxist explanations for the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Elites are defined by their control over organizational apparatuses for appropriating resources from non-elites. An elite in pursuit of its interests is constrained primarily by coexisting elites and secondarily by inter-class relations of production. The effects of elite and class conflict upon elite organizations and relations of production are traced. Conflict among feudal elites is identified as the primary determinant of the form and extent of social structural change in three historical cases: Florence during the Renaissance, England in the century leading up to the 1640 Revolution, and France from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

Class Segments: Agrarian Property and Political Leadership in the Capitalist Class of Chile [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 23-12-2002

Maurice Zeitlin, W. Lawrence Neuman, Richard Earl Ratcliff American Sociological Review. 1976. Vol. 41. No. 6. P. 1006-1029.

This is an analysis of the relationship between large landownership and "representative political activity" as one expression of political hegemony in the capitalist class of Chile in the mid-1960s. We conceptualize landed corporate executives and principal owners of capital and their non-landed counterparts in the largest corporations as distinct "class segments"; and we analyze their comparative officeholding in parliament and cabinet ministries and in the leadership of the political parties of the Right, as well as the officeholding of their fathers and others in their immediate families. The findings consistently show that the landed segment played a distinctive role in the political leadership of the capitalist class. The problem of the "coalescence" of agrarian property and corporate capital as a self-contradictory class situation and its relevance for state policy is posed for further analysis.

Core networks and tie activation: what kinds of routine networks allocate resources in nonroutine situations? [статья]

Опубликовано на портале: 29-05-2004

Jeanne S. Hurlbert, Valerie A. Haines, John J. Beggs American Sociological Review. 2000. Vol. 65. No. 4. P. 598-618.

Social resources research has linked activated ties to outcomes-but not to the core networks from which the ties came. This study shifts the focus to the question of how networks allocate resources. The activation of core network ties is analyzed in a nonroutine situation-a hurricane-to determine how core network structure affects the degree to which individuals activate core network ties to gain one type of social resource-informal support. Results show that the structures of individuals' core networks affect the degree to which individuals activate ties from those networks to gain informal support. Individuals embedded in higher-density core networks (i.e., alters are connected to one another), core networks with more gender diversity (i.e., a mix of men and women), and networks that contain higher proportions of men, kin, and younger individuals, activated core network ties for informal support to a greater degree than did individuals embedded in core networks lacking these characteristics. The conclusions consider the study's implications for understanding resource activation in the contexts of social support and job searches.

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