Why modern class conflict is about authority rather than just who owns the factory

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Ralf Dahrendorf argued that Karl Marx’s focus on property ownership was too narrow for the modern era. Instead, he proposed that social conflict stems from the distribution of authority within organizations. By shifting the lens from wealth to power, he redefined how we understand stability and change in society.

Ralf Dahrendorf, a German-British sociologist and politician, fundamentally challenged the mid-20th-century dominance of structural functionalism. In his 1959 seminal work, Class and Conflict in Industrial Society, he argued that society is defined by two inseparable, dual aspects: consensus and conflict. While functionalists viewed society as a static system held together by shared values, Dahrendorf insisted that conflict is an inherent, productive force that drives social change. He believed that order is maintained through the coercion of those in power, and that tensions are not merely disruptions to be suppressed, but essential elements that allow societies to progress.

Dahrendorf’s primary departure from Marxism was his rejection of property as the sole determinant of class. He observed that the rise of the joint-stock company meant that ownership no longer guaranteed control over production. Instead, he proposed that class formation is based on the exercise of authority within what he called imperatively coordinated associations. In these structures, individuals are divided into a command class and an obey class based on their position. Subordination is enforced through social expectations and sanctions, rather than just the possession of capital. This framework allowed him to analyze class conflict in post-capitalist societies where unions and legislative processes have institutionalized disputes.

Despite his influence, Dahrendorf’s theory has faced significant criticism for its macro-sociological focus. Critics argue that his rigid adherence to a modified Marxian perspective left him unable to engage with the growing importance of identity and culture in multicultural societies. Because his model prioritized authority structures, it largely ignored how citizenship and cultural identity contribute to the formation of social groups. While he successfully moved sociology beyond the binary of property-based class struggle, his work is often viewed as a transitional development that struggled to account for the complex, non-economic dimensions of modern social life.

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