what is the davis moore thesis

Open Education Sociology Dictionary

Davis-Moore thesis

Table of Contents

Definition of Davis-Moore Thesis

( noun )  Theory asserting that stratification and inequality are necessary and beneficial to society to motivate individuals to train for and perform complex roles .

Example of Davis-Moore Thesis

• Medical doctors must undergo years of education and training. Therefore they are economically rewarded and respected within society .

Etymology of Davis-Moore Thesis

• Developed by Kingsley Davis (1908–1997) and Wilbert E. Moore (1914–1987) and published in “ Some Principles of Stratification ” (1945).

Davis-Moore Thesis Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification : da·vis moore the·sis

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /ˈdeɪvəs-mɔr ˈθisəs/
• British English – /ˈdeɪvɪs-mʊə ˈθiːsɪs/

Usage Notes

• The Davis-Moore thesis is a functionalist theory that contends  society is a meritocracy and rewards people for their efforts and abilities through mobility and monetary rewards.
• The Davis-Moore thesis is still contested in the social sciences and referred to as the Davis-Moore debate .
• Davis-Moore hypothesis
• Davis-Moore theory
• Davis-Moore theory of stratification

Related Quotations

• “If the rights and perquisites of different positions in a  society must be unequal, then the  society must be stratified , because that is precisely what stratification means. Social inequality is thus an unconsciously evolved device by which  societies insure that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons . Hence every society , no matter how simple or complex, must differentiate persons in terms of both prestige and esteem, and must therefore possess a certain amount of institutionalized inequality ” (Davis and Moore 1945:243).
• “In 1945 Davis and Moore, following an earlier formulation by Davis, proposed a functional theory of stratification that was intended to account for what they contended was the “universal necessity” for social inequality in any social order. Beginning with an article by [Melvin] Tumin in 1953, the Davis-Moore theory elicited regular analysis , commentary, criticism, and debate through the 1970s. Although professional work on the theory has largely ceased since the late 1980s, the Davis-Moore theory remains perhaps the single most widely cited paper in American introductory sociology and stratification textbooks and constitutes “required reading” in hundreds, if not thousands, of undergraduate and graduate courses throughout the United States ” (Hauhart 2003:5).

Additional Information

• Word origin of “thesis” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Abrahamson, Mark. 1973. “Functionalism and the Functional Theory of Stratification: An Empirical Assessment.” American Journal of Sociology   78(5):1236–46. doi: 10.1086/225429 .
• Bershady, Harold J. 1970. “On Davis and Moore Again, or Dissensus and the Stability of Social Systems.” The British Journal of Sociology   21(4):446–54. doi: 10.2307/588499 .
• Betz, Michael, Kemp Davis, and Patrick Miller. 1978. “Scarcity, Income Advantage, and Mobility: More Evidence on the Functional Theory of Stratification.” Sociological Quarterly   19(3):399–413. doi: 10.1111/j.1533-8525.1978.tb01184.x .

Davis, Kingsley, and Wilbert E. Moore. 1945. “Some Principles of Stratification.” American Sociological Review  10(2):242–49. doi: 10.2307/2085643 .

• Kimberly, James C. 1970. “The Emergence and Stabilization of Stratification in Simple and Complex Social Systems.” Sociological Inquiry   40(2):73–101. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1970.tb01003.x .

Hauhart, Robert C. 2003. “The Davis-Moore theory of Stratification: The Life Course of a Socially Constructed Classic.” The American Sociologist  34(4):5–24. doi: 10.1007/s12108-003-1013-y .

• Huaco, George A. 1966. “The Functionalist Theory of Stratification: Two Decades of Controversy.” Inquiry   9(1–4):215–40. doi: 10.1080/00201746608601459 .
• Panayotakis, Costas. 2014. “Capitalism, Meritocracy, and Social Stratification: A Radical Reformulation of the Davis-Moore Thesis.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology   73(1):126–50. doi: 10.1111/ajes.12068 .
• Wanner, Richard A., and Lionel S. Lewis. 1978. “The Functional Theory of Stratification: A Test of Some Structural Hypotheses.” Sociological Quarterly   19(3):414–28. doi: 10.1111/j.1533-8525.1978.tb01185.x .

Related Terms

• functionalism
• meritocracy
• stratification

Works Consulted

Abercrombie, Nicholas, Stephen Hill, and Bryan Turner. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology . 5th ed. London: Penguin.

Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e . Houston, TX: OpenStax.

Jary, David, and Julia Jary. 2000. Collins Dictionary of Sociology . 3rd ed. Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins.

Macionis, John. 2012.  Sociology . 14th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Ravelli, Bruce, and Michelle Webber. 2016. Exploring Sociology: A Canadian Perspective . 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson.

Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology . New York: Oxford University Press.

Turner, Bryan S., ed. 2006. The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . Wikimedia Foundation. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/ ).

Cite the Definition of Davis-Moore Thesis

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “Davis-Moore thesis.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary . Retrieved October 19, 2024 ( https://sociologydictionary.org/davis-moore-thesis/ ).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

Davis-Moore thesis. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary . Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/davis-moore-thesis/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “Davis-Moore thesis.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary . Accessed October 19, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/davis-moore-thesis/ .

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“Davis-Moore thesis.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary . Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2024. < https://sociologydictionary.org/davis-moore-thesis/ >.

9.4 Theoretical Perspectives on Social Stratification

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

• Apply functionalist, conflict theory, and interactionist perspectives on social stratification

Basketball is one of the highest-paying professional sports and stratification exists even among teams in the NBA. For example, the Toronto Raptors hands out the lowest annual payroll, while the New York Knicks reportedly pays the highest. Stephen Curry, a Golden State Warriors guard, is one of the highest paid athletes in the NBA, earning around $43 million a year (Sports Illustrated 2020), whereas the lowest paid player earns just over $200,000 (ESPN 2021). Even within specific fields, layers are stratified, members are ranked, and inequality exists.

In sociology, even an issue such as NBA salaries can be seen from various points of view. Functionalists will examine the purpose of such high salaries, conflict theorists will study the exorbitant salaries as an unfair distribution of money, and symbolic interactionists will describe how players display that wealth. Social stratification takes on new meanings when it is examined from different sociological perspectives—functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.

Functionalism

In sociology, the functionalist perspective examines how society’s parts operate. According to functionalism, different aspects of society exist because they serve a vital purpose. What is the function of social stratification?

In 1945, sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore published the Davis-Moore thesis , which argued that the greater the functional importance of a social role, the greater must be the reward. The theory posits that social stratification represents the inherently unequal value of different work. Certain tasks in society are more valuable than others (for example, doctors or lawyers). Qualified people who fill those positions are rewarded more than others.

According to Davis and Moore, a firefighter’s job is more important than, for instance, a grocery store cashier’s job. The cashier position does not require similar skill and training level as firefighting. Without the incentive of higher pay, better benefits, and increased respect, why would someone be willing to rush into burning buildings? If pay levels were the same, the firefighter might as well work as a grocery store cashier and avoid the risk of firefighting. Davis and Moore believed that rewarding more important work with higher levels of income, prestige, and power encourages people to work harder and longer.

Davis and Moore stated that, in most cases, the degree of skill required for a job determines that job’s importance. They noted that the more skill required for a job, the fewer qualified people there would be to do that job. Certain jobs, such as cleaning hallways or answering phones, do not require much skill. Therefore, most people would be qualified for these positions. Other work, like designing a highway system or delivering a baby, requires immense skill limiting the number of people qualified to take on this type of work.

Many scholars have criticized the Davis-Moore thesis. In 1953, Melvin Tumin argued that it does not explain inequalities in the education system or inequalities due to race or gender. Tumin believed social stratification prevented qualified people from attempting to fill roles (Tumin 1953).

Conflict Theory

Conflict theorists are deeply critical of social stratification, asserting that it benefits only some people, not all of society. For instance, to a conflict theorist, it seems wrong that a basketball player is paid millions for an annual contract while a public school teacher may earn $35,000 a year. Stratification, conflict theorists believe, perpetuates inequality. Conflict theorists try to bring awareness to inequalities, such as how a rich society can have so many poor members.

Many conflict theorists draw on the work of Karl Marx. During the nineteenth-century era of industrialization, Marx believed social stratification resulted from people’s relationship to production. People were divided into two main groups: they either owned factories or worked in them. In Marx’s time, bourgeois capitalists owned high-producing businesses, factories, and land, as they still do today. Proletariats were the workers who performed the manual labor to produce goods. Upper-class capitalists raked in profits and got rich, while working-class proletariats earned skimpy wages and struggled to survive. With such opposing interests, the two groups were divided by differences of wealth and power. Marx believed workers experience deep alienation, isolation and misery resulting from powerless status levels (Marx 1848). Marx argued that proletariats were oppressed by the bourgeoisie.

Today, while working conditions have improved, conflict theorists believe that the strained working relationship between employers and employees still exists. Capitalists own the means of production, and a system is in place to make business owners rich and keep workers poor. According to conflict theorists, the resulting stratification creates class conflict.

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism uses everyday interactions of individuals to explain society as a whole. Symbolic interactionism examines stratification from a micro-level perspective. This analysis strives to explain how people’s social standing affects their everyday interactions.

In most communities, people interact primarily with others who share the same social standing. It is precisely because of social stratification that people tend to live, work, and associate with others like themselves, people who share their same income level, educational background, class traits and even tastes in food, music, and clothing. The built-in system of social stratification groups people together. This is one of the reasons why it was rare for a royal prince like England’s Prince William to marry a commoner.

Symbolic interactionists also note that people’s appearance reflects their perceived social standing. As discussed above, class traits seen through housing, clothing, and transportation indicate social status, as do hairstyles, taste in accessories, and personal style. Symbolic interactionists also analyze how individuals think of themselves or others interpretation of themselves based on these class traits.

To symbolically communicate social standing, people often engage in conspicuous consumption , which is the purchase and use of certain products to make a social statement about status. Carrying pricey but eco-friendly water bottles could indicate a person’s social standing, or what they would like others to believe their social standing is. Some people buy expensive trendy sneakers even though they will never wear them to jog or play sports. A $17,000 car provides transportation as easily as a $100,000 vehicle, but the luxury car makes a social statement that the less expensive car can’t live up to. All these symbols of stratification are worthy of examination by an interactionist.

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The Davis-Moore thesis argues that social stratification, a system of structured social inequality, is a necessary and inevitable aspect of society because it ensures that the most qualified individuals fill the roles that are most important for society's functioning. It emphasizes the functional necessity of unequal rewards to motivate individuals to undertake training and perform roles critical to social organization.

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Related terms

Social stratification : The hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of power, wealth, and status within a society.

A theoretical perspective in sociology that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.

A social system in which advancement in society is based on an individual's capabilities and merits rather than on the basis of family, wealth, or social background

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