Ideal Society Outline

Ideal Society Outline

Introduction

Throughout history, humankind has been characterized by events and attempts to build an ideal society.   Sociologists have defined an ideal society as society where there is equal freedom and chances for all the members of the society while all the needs of the members are met. This means most ideal societies have high standards of universal medical care and offer all basic necessities including clothing, food, and shelter. As such, an ideal society is where all the components have achieved harmony (Beg, 2014). The provision of at least the basic needs of the society is described as a predictor of human flourishing. While all society has a system of rating and ranking its members according to education, income, occupation, and socioeconomic background, an ideal society is different.

Key components

Social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of people in a society in classes and ranks based there control on basic necessities such as education, finance, healthcare, food, clothing and anything that is value to the society. While any society has social stratification arrangement, an ideal society is devoid of the social classes (Beg, 2014). All the members of the society have the same financial power as ownership of property as well as materialism is discouraged. Esping-Andersen (2015) affirms an ideal community shares the same ideals with socialist communism where there is no definition of social classes.

Social mobility comes in when an individual or a group of people move from one social position to another. Most commonly, social mobility have been used to refer to the change of wealth and social classes of an individual or families. Often sociologists have compared change of income from parents to their children to obtain social mobility. The ideal society is devoid of social mobility since wealth and other basic resources are shared equally.  Poverty is a common element is different types of societies in defining social mobility and stratification. Poverty has been defined into two types depending of the resources lacking. Absolute poverty is where there is total lack of resources to meet the most basic human needs. Relative poverty on the other hand means the lack of resources or means to meet standards of living that is considered normal to a society (Hagenaars, 2017). None of the poverty types does exist in an ideal society.

Theories

There has been different model of social classes. Sociologist Erik Wright defined social classes into capitalists (large business owners), petty bourgeoisie (Small firm owners), managers, and workers. On the other hand, sociologists Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl divided social classes into capitalists, upper-middle class, lower-middle class, the working class, working poor, underclass, and homeless. None of the models fits in the ideal society. It is important to note an ideal society has no social classes as all people are equal. However, the society needs different social classes’ classification as some people would often advance financially and education-wise than others in any society.

People in an ideal society cannot advance their social classes since individuals are almost in the same social, political and economic layout (Lewis, 2017). They possess equal achievements and have the same influence to the whole society. This implies that individuals do not realize any progress even after they venture into efforts of advancing their social classes. An individual can advance their social classes in the ideal society through some ways. First, one can strive to change some aspects of the society norms that would permit him or her to advance their social positions. One can achieve this through a revolutionary pursuance in changing the rigidity of this ideal society.

Prejudice in an ideal society exists since some individuals do not deem it to their expectations and therefore base their accusations of their inability to progress to the other people omission. The individuals assert their accusations out of some life prospects. Discrimination in an ideal society does not fit since individuals have the same rank in the society with no one with power over the other (Lewis, 2017). Everyone is contented with what they have and no one has the capacity to overpower the other with inclined omission. The people in an ideal society can connect with other society through social interactions. This makes them realize their weaknesses and learn new ideas, which are vital for their society (Lewis, 2017). Moreover, they exchange their achievements and cultures as well. This makes them decipher their societal prospects largely.

The people within minority feel inferior to the people within the majority. They believe they have no power over the decision-making in the society and bestow that mandate to the people within the majority (Geary, 2016). They believe that the individuals in the majority have power to rule them and direct them accordingly. The individuals within the minority tend to believe that their culture is inferior and they strive to achieve the change. The poverty separates the rulers and the leaders. The poor people in the society accept the wealth people to control them. This aspect is a matter of logic and not idealism (Geary, 2016). They acquire assistance from the wealth people and hence believe that they are inferior in decision-making and powerless over their boss. Poverty affects the behavior of individuals especially to the people in the poor society. Lack of materials may make them engage in crocked behavior like stealing. Some are however loyal to the rich and interact positively with them.

Conclusion

Therefore, in conclusion, although we have in mind of an ideal society, it does not actually exist. The real society has individuals with social positions as well as ranking. Social interaction is inevitable in any society and hence the correlation which brings societal progress.

References

Beg, M. (2014). Ideal Society Socialization & Social Pollution. 10.13140/RG.2.1.3398.0969.

Esping-Andersen, G. (2015). Welfare regimes and social stratification. Journal of European          Social Policy, 25(1), pp. 124-134.

Hagenaars, A. J. (2017). The definition and measurement of poverty. In Economic Inequality and             Poverty: International Perspectives (pp. 148-170). Routledge

Lewis, O. (2017). The culture of poverty. In Poor Jews (pp. 9-25). Routledge.

Geary, D. (2016). How do we get people to interact? International students and the          American experience. Journal of International Students, 6(2), pp. 527-541.