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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

What are the reasons for calling Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore’s theory of social stratification a functional theory?

  • UPSC 2009
  • Stratification and Mobility

A theory is functional when it explains a social arrangement by its consequences for the maintenance of the wider system. Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore ("Some Principles of Stratification", 1945) are the textbook case: they asked not who gains from inequality but what need of society it meets.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Reasons for the label
  • How it contrasts with conflict theory
  • The label also marks its weaknesses
  • Conclusion

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