STATUS CLASS

The German sociologist Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification in which he defines 'status class' (also known as a 'status group') as a group of people (part of a society) that can be differentiated on the basis of non-economical qualities like honour, prestige and religion. Weber says bureaucracy is the most powerful of all status groups (Max Weber, revised edition by Frank Parkin, 2002). Since Max Weber, the issue of status inconsistency has been the object of many studies because the phenomenon has itself been multiplied, particularly in the post-industrial societies and also because of an intervening factor: religion, particularly in emerging nations (see ''From Social Class and Religious Identity to Status Incongruence in Post-Industrial Societies'' by Mattei Dogan in ''Comparative Sociology'' 2004.
It is contrasted to:

★ social class, based on economically determined relationship to the market.

★ party class, based on affiliations in the political domain.