2 THEORIES OF SOCIAL-CLASS AND SOCIAL-STRATIFICATION

Social class and social stratification belongs to classic topics of so ciology. The paper deals with the two contemporary most influential th eories of classes: Erik Olin Wright's neo-marxist theory and John H. G oldthorpe's neo-weberian class theory. The purpose of this paper is to consider how these theories represent the two major theoretical tradi tions of class analysis in sociology and to discuss main streams of th eir critique. The author argues that in spits of many common character istics, the compared theories preserve their distinctive features: the core concept of the first one is class relations, the second has got rather gradualistic character. The neo-marxist theory has still recogn ised the existence of the distinct class of capitalists, the neo-weber ian theory attempts to conceal its existence. Wright argues that the m ain division line is that between employers and employees, Goldthorpe: considers it to be the line between manual and non-manual workers. Ne o-marxists still distinguish between capitalists and other classes. On the next hand, neo-weberians state that there is the plurality of non capitalist social classes.