Education, Jobs, and Inequality: Functional and Conflict Models of Social Stratification in the United States

Abstract

This study examines two competing interpretations of the relation between formal education and the occupational structure, and the dynamics of social stratification in the United States. The techno-democratic model points to the rising requirements of technical skill for jobs and the pursuit of greater economic equality to explain the expansion of formal education. The class conflict model maintains that formal education has expanded in order to maintain the stability of work organizations and the class structure by imparting noncognitive characteristics encouraging existing social relationships. The findings suggest that: (1) The expansion of education cannot be explained by changing technical skill requirements of work. (2) While inequality in educational attainment has been reduced for the population as a whole and between whites and nonwhites, this has not led to a reduction of economic inequality. (3) The noncognitive attributes inculcated by schooling are rewarded in the occupational structure; this reflects employers' concern for social control within organizations. The major implication of this study is that the relationship between education, jobs, and social inequality can be better understood in terms of class structure rather than assumed differences in the characteristics (marginal productivity) of individuals who interact within the constraints of that structure. If a reduction of economic inequality is a policy objective, the focus of social policy should be on the structural determinants of inequality rather than on the education, training, or some other characteristic of individuals.