The views of the New Right on stratification share similarities with the classic
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless view - stratification and differentiation is seen as necessary and
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless . The New Right believes that societal inequalities are the results of
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless competition within an economy. Class division and difference is natural, inevitable and
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless to society as they create incentives and rewards for the most able and give appropriate
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless to the less able.
Examples of New Right Thinkers 1. Peter Saunders (1990) argued that the cause of class differences in society did not lie in structural factors like your place in terms of the means of
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless , but instead were determined by what he described as
consumption cleavages . In particular our position in society is defined on whether we rely on the
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless for essential services such as education,
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless and housing or whether we purchased these services
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless . Saunders argued that these consumption cleavages were the result of equal opportunity and hard
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless . The successful therefore
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless their success. Saunders also suggests that there is considerable social
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless in Britain and that the causes of this mobility are
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless , hard work and motivation
Criticisms of Saunders Saunders either appears to ignore gender and
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless inequalities or implies that such differences must be down to lack or ability or
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless .
It is contended that the consumption cleavages that Saunders identifies are really just the results of traditional class division - the working class having less
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless to spend on services due to their poorer
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless position and place in terms of the
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless of production.
2. Charles Murray .
Murray has suggested that a class exists beneath the working class in modern society called the
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless . The underclass is made up of the poor, the old,
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless parents, the disabled and the
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless and is defined by the New Right in terms of the different
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless values they possess. According to the New Right the underclass develops a
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless outlook on life Murray described as "welfare dependency". The underclass develop the belief that they are powerless to alter their social position and thus develop a
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless , work shy, criminal and irresponsible set of values.
Support for the existence of an underclass also comes from American sociologist WJ Wilson who argued that the American underclass is invariably
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless and long term unemployed.
The British sociologist Anthony Giddens (one of the leading intellectuals who supports New Labour) also back the idea on an underclass. For Giddens the underclass consists of the unemployed and
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless time employed. Giddens has influenced New labour social policy designed to break down the "
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless culture" and its deviant values e.g. The New Deal designed to tackle 5 million "workless" households, and also policies designed to
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless families for the deviancy (criminality or truancy) of their children.
Criticisms of the notion of an Underclass 1. The "underclass" is a
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless weighted term which encompasses all sorts of people who may well be on benefits for very different reasons at different stages of their lives.
2. Lydia Morris suggests that the term underclass is just the way those at the bottom of the social heap are stigmatised as
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless and dangerous by ruling groups. Cultural bias against the unemployed and part time employed is just a new form of a class
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless which has existed for a long time.
The Influence of the New Right New Right ideas have had a profound
ability beneficial Black cultural culturally dependency deserve deviant ethnicity fatalistic functional functionalist hatred health homeless market means meritocratic mobility money motivation part political privately production punish roles single State underclass work worthless influence on social policy in the UK especially under New Labour.
Some critiques of this influence can be found below. Read and evaluate them
Link One Link Two Link Three