Open & Close Class System

Open System

It has few impediments of social mobility.

• Social Positions are awarded on the basis of…

>merit>qualifications>rank

• Status depends on individual effort and intelligence. (achieved status)

Example:

• The class system – people are ranked according to possession of economic resources, political power, social honor or prestige.

• People having approximately equal income, education and occupational prestige belong to

the same class or strata.• But, it doesn’t mean that an open society is an

equal society.

• It simply provides people with equal chance to succeed or equal opportunity to achieve different standards of living based on their talents, skills and contributions

• The open class system provides for all forms of social mobility. A person

may go up or down the social ladder, or

may move horizontally , within his or her own social strata based on his

motivation, intelligence, effort

industry, freewill or sheer luck

Closed or Caste System

• The system is based on ascribed status, that is, determined by…

>Birth>Family origin>Race>Creed>Color>Sex> And other ascribed

characteristics

• Members in the close societies are locked in their parents’ social position.

• Individuals’ opportunities are limited accordingly.

• Legal and religious sanctions are applied to those who attempt to cross them.

• It allows for horizontal social mobility, that is, movement within their particular stratum.

Examples: Caste System &

South African Apartheid System• meaning separateness in

Afrikaans• was a system of legal racial

segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994.

• Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times, but apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election of 1948.

• New legislation classified inhabitants into racial groups (black, white, colored, and Indian), and residential areas were segregated by means of forced removals.

• Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance. A series of popular uprisings and protests were met with the banning of opposition and imprisoning of anti-apartheid leaders. As unrest spread and became more violent, state organizations responded with increasing repression and state-sponsored violence.