matter between life and death in the end. Therefore, it is not the cognitive psychology of how much individuals recognise each other, but the sociological problem of how groups of people are distinguished from each other. Therefore, the problem is one of inequality and the many forms of stratification are all perceptible differences because people are socially formed. Though they may originate in fixed characteristics at birth. In society today, there are unequal social relations of three kinds: power, property and prestige. It is these terms that help make every society a functional one.Power relations exist everywhere in our society. "People differ in all sorts of ways. There are differences between adults and children, men and women, employee and employer, the highly educated and uneducated, the light-skinned and dark-skinned and so forth." The perceptible differences that exist between people are socially formed: meaning that 'within each society a certain significance and certain expectation will be attached to them, and these will help determine the impact.' (2001,de Swaan, 34) When speaking in terms of stratification we can bring in the Thomas rule: if something is expected to happen, these expectations affect what already happens. Power relations are dependence relations with a minus sign. If A is dependent on B to achieve something, this creates a relationship of dependence between them. When we stop, look and examine the world around us today, some of us may wander how societies persist without distributing their resources more equally. A has power = A has power over B, C, D, and E, i.e.; a relationship of dependence, which rests on a balance of power. The balance of power exists within a network; certain individuals are dependent on someone, who in turn is dependent on them. Power is a characteristic of a position within a network of people of dependence relations."People are 'in power' for as long as they stay there. Yet ...
