"Über den Ursprung der Ungleichheit unter den Menschen" Zur Vergangenheit und Gegenwart einer soziologischen Schlüsselfrage

Abstract

Although social inequality is a central area of research in sociology it does not look as if the discipline is able to provide a conclusive and generally accepted answer to the question about the sources of inequality. In particular, a theory of income inequality in market societies is not available. Rousseau's "Discours sur l'inegalité" inaugurated a long-standing controversial debate. Although it amounts for long stretches, to nothing more than rhetoric, it, nevertheless, contains two important suggestions for answering the question: inequality arises by deviating from an original state of equality; these deviations originate in enclosures, i.e. the appropriation of resources whose supply is limited. In taking up these ideas this paper sets out to demonstrate that differences in remuneration in market societies result exclusively from processes of monopolistic closure. In competitive equilibrium there are no differences in compensation but only differences in endowment. Perfect competition eliminates the differential remuneration of factors of production thus guaranteeing that returns are strictly proportional to investments. Restraints of trade, however, are the social basis for the payment of economic returns to groups advantaged by the closure of markets. Economic returns beyond the amount necessary to keep a factor of production in its present condition of employment, represent a structural inequality of income not reducible to individual skill differences.