to stay there, they are dependent on all those who are dependent on them." (2001,de Swaan, 36)One must ask themselves, that when looking at de Swaans quote, we begin to wonder who exactly has the power? This question, though interesting, must remain unanswered. "The most influential theoretical approaches are those developed by Karl Marx and Max Weber; most subsequent theories of stratification have been heavily indebted to their ideas." The ideas of Marx and Weber have influenced many other areas on the discipline too. Most of Marx's works were concerned with stratification and, above all with social class, "yet he failed to provide a systematic analysis of the concept of class. Marx's concept of class thus has to be reconstructed from the body of his writings as a whole." (1997,Giddens, 244) Marx took capitalist societies to task for channelling wealth and power into the hands of a few, all the while defining the practice as simply 'a law of the market place.' (1997, Macionis and Plummer, 247) Functionalists have a particular way of looking at the world. Everyone has a role in keeping laws in order and peace in society. Our roles as students are functional to the educational system; without student universities, function would not exist. "In modern societies, governments often control their armed forces from separating them: army, navy, and air forcecompete for funding from the budget, which stops them forming a united front against the government."(2001, de Swaan, 39)When we look at all of these examples, the person or persons that occupy the position of power, has a direct link to the others in the network, 'who are not directly linked to each other,' corresponds to the pattern of what is known as a hierarchical network. When people hold a position of power they can take advantage of this position to strengthen it. "Class systems celebrate individualism and achievement, so that social standing serves as a measure of personal wor...
