2. 2
SOCIOLOGY
Contacts for help:dorineadalyn@gmail.com
Economic inequality refers to proportional disparities among people’s income and
wealth. Functionalist theory looks at society as structure that has related systems and are
designed to achieve certain goals that makes up the society. The functions works together to keep
the society working and are regulated by various pasts. Modernization or structural theory posit
that developing nation must adopt industrialization beliefs and practices to be wealthy, however,
this proves cannot happen overnight, it takes time. This is the reasons why some nations are rich
while other are poor. Functionalism perspective also works for the different socials classes
among people. According to the Forbes reports, as at march 2020, there were at least 2095
billionaires in the world while World Bank reports that 736 million people globally are leaving
under poverty. The figures are evidence of the shift of tide between wealth and poverty. The
disparities like these are common in the contemporary society and thus rise to the question of
economic inequality. This is a natural order which is proven by the fact that wealthy people are
increasingly being fewer and while middle class and poor people who are the majority are still
remaining at the bottom of the pyramid (Rice University, 2021). This essay aims at explaining
and describing economic inequality throughout the world by applying functionalism theory and
how the theory connects to economic stratification globally?
It is human nature to compare among people, within the nation and even among countries
and continent (Vedantam, 2019). Based on the modernization theory, countries are considered as
wealthy because of the beliefs, practices and values which they adopted for industrialization and
3. 3
SOCIOLOGY
trade thus leading to rapid economic development. On the other hand, developing nations failed
to adopted strategic development strategies like industrialization and instead adopted practices
that stymied industrial development. This is the reasons why developed nation are wealthy while
those of developing nation are poor hence economic inequality. Structural-functionalist
stratification and equality are both beneficial and inevitable aspect of the society. The societal
layers are conceptualized as pyramid thus function to sort people out. Thus the layering is
significant because it ensure that the best people remains to the top of the pyramid and those who
are deemed less worthy remains at the bottom of the pyramid, therefore, they have less powers
and gets few rewards compared to those who are at the top. The unequal distribution of
opportunities serve the purpose of ensuring that most functionally important job are occupied by
those who are important. For instance, important job is determined by the degree by the job is
unique and what skills it requires, whether many or few people can perform the functions of the
job adequately. For instance, a baggage collector are important in the city yet they are not paid
adequately due to no training. A doctor is rewarded abundantly because of extensive training to
do their function/job in the society. In addition to the promotion, a doctor gets promotion,
vacation, and allowances thus feeling important in the job while the baggage collector only
depend on little income, which sometime cannot satisfy their needs.
A comparison of the U. K and Dominican Republic GD, inflation, and Mortality rate
indicate that there is a structural variation between the two countries. Based on the data from the
World Bank, U K GDP growth annual has been rising at 1.9% in 2016, 2018 it was 1.9% and it
was 1.5% in 2019. While the mortality rate under 5 per 1000 lives birth for the U.K is 4.4 in
2016, 4.3 in 2018, and 4.3 in 2019 (World Bank, 2021). This figures compared to the
Dominican Republic is 6.7% in 2016, 4.7 2017, 5.1 in 2019. Mortality rate is 5 per 1000 lives
4. 4
SOCIOLOGY
birth is 30.55 in 2016, 29.7 in 2017, 28.8 in 2018 and 28.0 in 2019 (World Bank, 2021). The
inflation rate for United Kingdom is 2.1 in 1016, 1.9 in 2017, and 1.3 in 2018. While for the
Dominican Republic, was 2.0 in 2016, 4.2 in 2017 and 4.1 in 2018. This is an indication that
wealth is concentrated among nations with good economic plans while nations whose political
strategies depend on traditional mode of production will inevitably have lowered economic
growth. The stratification among thus affect the issue of mortality, GDP, inflation rate etc.
Global inequality involves the concentration of resources in some nation thus affecting
the opportunities of citizens in developing nations. Functionalist perspective is micro-analytical
view that’s looks at how aspect of society are integrated. Economic inequality refers to
proportional disparities among people’s income and wealth. Stratification refers to gaps
between nations and within the nation in regard to resources. Social Facts are values, morals,
laws, belief that govern a social life. Functions is any recurrent activity that plays a significant
role in society while social manifest are the result of the social process. Latent function are the
unaccepted consequences of social process. Dysfunction are the social process that don’t have a
desired result in the society. Global Stratification is the manner in which nations are unequally
distributed. Inequality is disproportionate a distribution of economic opportunities. Peripheral
nations are nations with little industrialization. High income nations according to the World
Bank, high income nations are those whose income is above $ 12, 276. Social Function are the
way in which mechanism of the nation are maintained. Social functional approach looks the
societal as having interdependent systems that work together to maintain itself. Social structure
is any repeated routine pattern in the society, or it can be seen are maintained mechanism that
ensure that people in the society are classified in different classes.
5. 5
SOCIOLOGY
In the world today, living condition are unequal between different nations and within
nations. The centuries stratification or economic are the reasons why today global inequality is
experienced. It is inherently unfair that some nations or people within the nations have managed
to leave a healthy life, and have good health programs while some people are swirling in poverty.
These factors are pushed by different economic opportunities or lack of adequate
industrialization strategies. Some people have argued that today global inequality is due to bad
lack of place where one is born. For instance, the mortality rate in nation with poor economics or
lack of adequate resources can lead to a child dying faster compared to a nation with adequate
resources like United States, U.K, or Canada. For every 1 child in every 5 children born in Africa
one die will die due to lack adequate health system compared to a child born in Europe where 1
in every 250 will die before reaching five years. A look at the Qatar is almost $ 117 000 while
central Africa republic is $ 661. This is an indication the global poverty has a devastating effects
as developing nations suffer on human development on issue of mortality, education, and health
while nation that are rich can reduce mortality rate, have improved health and can provide
education for their citizens.
6. 6
SOCIOLOGY
References
Rice University. (2021). Theoretical perspectives. Openstax College. Retrieved from:
https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology/pages/1-3-theoretical-perspectives#0
Vedantam, Shankar. Shah, Parth. Boyle, Tara. Cohen, Rhaina. (2019). Why No One Feels Rich
The Psychology of Inequality. Hidden Brain. Retrieved from:
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/19/715145723/why-no-one-feels-rich-the-psychology-of-
inequality
World Bank. (2021). World Development Indicators. Retrieved from:
https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=2&country=GBR
