The Meek Shall Not Inherit the Earth: Self-Evaluation and the Legitimacy of Stratification

Stratified social orders are maintained through a wide variety of mechanisms, one being broad-based legitimation of the notion of unequal distribution of primary resources. My attempt to develop a set of propositions provides at least a partial explanation of how such legitimation is generated and maintained. I argue that both conflict and functional theory point, at least implicitly, to the importance of the effect of unequal distribution of resources on the development of the self-constructing my argument through application of Mead' s theory of the self to the case of stratification. This application is shown, in turn, to be compatible with several lines of theorizing in social psychology, including equity and status attribution theory. Once basic propositions are developed, I discuss ways in which major social institutions maintain legitimacy through their effect on the self and explore some possible sources of delegitimation.