AMERICAN SOCIETYproduce strong social tensions, the system has
shown remarkable stability.
The history of stratification has included con-
quest of Native Americans, slavery of African peo-
ples, and extensive discrimination against Asians,
Hispanics, and various immigrants of European
origin. Assimilation and other processes of socie-
tal inclusion have moved the whole society increas-
ingly toward a pluralistic system, but deep cleavages
and inequalities continue. A fundamental tension
persists between principles of equality of opportu-
nity and individual merit, on the one hand, and
practices of ascribed status and group discrimina-
tion, on the other (cf. Myrdal, Sterner, and Ro-
se 1944).
As a consequence of increased openness since
the Immigration Act of 1965, the population con-
tains increased proportions of persons whose back-
grounds are in Asia and Latin America; this de-
velopment complicates ethnic/racial boundaries
and alignments, including political formations
(Edmonston and Pasell 1994). The increased
receptivity to immigrants was enhanced by the
Refugee Act of 1980, the Immigration and Con-
trol Act of 1986, and the Immigration Act of 1990.
The result is that the number of immigrants admit-
ted per year has soared to an average of about a
million during the period 1990–1995 (Statistical
Abstract of the United States, 1997, p. 10). Although
vigorous political controversy surrounds immigra-
tion, the country remains committed to a general
policy of acceptance and to citizenship by resi-
dence rather than by ethnic origin.
Although much reduced in its most obvious
forms, discrimination against African Americans
continues to be widespread, in housing (Yinger
1995), credit, and employment (Wilson 1996; Jaynes
and Williams 1989). Residential segregation con-
tinues at high levels, although the 1980s brought a
small movement toward more residential mixing,
primarily in smaller Southern and Western cities
(Farley and Frey 1994).
The Economy. The American economic sys-
tem is a complex form of ‘‘high capitalism’’ charac-
terized by large corporations, worldwide interde-
pendence, high levels of private consumption, and
close linkages with the state.
Increased specialization leads both to increased
complexity and to increased interdependence, two
sides of the same coin. In the United States, as in
all industrialized countries, the movement from
the primary extractive and agricultural industries
to manufacturing was followed by growth of the
tertiary exchange-facilitating activities, and then to
expansion of occupations having to do with con-
trol and coordination and those ministering di-
rectly to the health, education, recreation, and
comfort of the population. As early as 1970, nearly
two-thirds of the labor force was in pursuits other
than those in ‘‘direct production’’ (primary and
secondary industries).Since the late 1970s, there has been rapid
growth in involuntary part-time jobs and in other
insecure and low-paying employment as the econo-
my has shifted toward trade and services and
corporations have sought to lower labor costs
(Tilly 1996).As the economy has thus shifted its focus, the
dominance of large corporations has become more
and more salient. In manufacturing, the total val-
ue added that is accounted for by the 200 largest
companies went from 37 percent in 1954 to 43
percent in 1970. Of all employees in manufactur-
ing, the percent working in multi-unit firms in-
creased from 56 percent in 1947 to 75 percent by
1972 (Meyer 1979, pp. 27–28). The top 500 indus-
trial companies account for three-fourths of indus-
trial employment (Wardwell 1978, p. 97).Meanwhile, organized labor has not grown
correspondingly; for decades, overall unioniza-
tion has remained static, increasing only in the
service, technical, and quasi-professional occupa-
tions. The importance of the great corporations as
the primary focus of production and finance con-
tinues to increase. Widespread dispersion of in-
come rights in the form of stocks and bonds has
made the giant corporation possible, and this
same dispersion contributes directly to the con-
centration of control rights in the hands of sala-
ried management and minority blocs of stockhold-
ers. With widened markets for mass production of
standardized products, strong incentives were cre-
ated for effective systems of central control. Al-
though such tendencies often overreached them-
selves and led to a measure of later decentralization,
the modern corporation, not surprisingly, shows
many of the characteristics of the most highly
developed forms of bureaucracy.