Education and the Hegemony of the British Ruling Class

Abstract

Power in British society is not shared equally amongst either individuals or the groups that make up the social fabric. The disagreements are considerable as to how inequitable the power distribution is and while some see small differentials others believe that power in contemporary British society is as unequally distributed as ever. The relationship between perceptions of inequality and a moral evaluation of it is far from simple. For some the moral outrage at the injustices of inegalitarianism knows few bounds, while others are prepared to justify gross inequalities or voice their concern at the steady erosion of power differentials. Another group accepts inequality as either inevitable or desirable but would wish to see it based upon new, invariably more meritocratic, foundations. The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the case that a morally reprehensible inegalitarianism still exists in Britain. We are analysing this perspective in preference to the others because it is one that is widely supported, because it has a strong theoretical and empirical basis, and because it challenges some of our own assumptions about how the distribution of power in contemporary British society is perpetuated.KeywordsBritish SocietyRuling ClassPolitical OrderElite GroupLabour PartyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.