Sociology is the study of humans as social beings – how we organise and
participate in groups, and how these groups change over time.
Class in New Zealand is
a product of both Māori and Western social structures. New Zealand, a first world country, was traditionally
supposed to be a 'classless society' but this claim is problematic in a number
of ways, and has been clearly untrue since at least the 1980s as it has become
easier to distinguish between the wealthy and the underclass.
Māori
hierarchies
Present-day Māori society, though far less
hierarchical than traditionally, remains stratified by European
standards. A disproportionate number of Māori MPs have come from
chiefly families, for example, and kaumātua have special status.
However, a number of lowly-born Māori have achieved positions of
considerable mana within their communities by virtue of their
achievements or learning.
About classless society
Until about the 1980s it was claimed that New Zealand
was a 'classless
society'. Historian Keith Sinclair wrote in 1969 that
although New Zealand was not a classless society, "it must be more nearly
classless... than any advanced society in the world". From the
nineteenth century many visitors also made this claim, for example British
socialists Sidney and Beatrice Webb,
and politician Austin Mitchell. The
evidence for this was the relatively small range of wealth (that is, the
wealthiest did not earn hugely more than the poorest earners), lack of
deference to authority figures, high levels of class
mobility, a high standard of working class living compared to
Britain, progressive labour laws which protected workers and encouraged
unionism, and a welfare state which was developed in New
Zealand before most other countries. Also, during the post-WWII years, New
Zealand became an increasingly prosperous society, with the majority of New
Zealanders coming to attain an affluent lifestyle. As noted by the historian William
Ball Sutch in 1966.
Inequality
New Zealand's claims to
be a classless society were dealt a fatal blow in the 1980s and 1990s by the
economic reforms of the fourth Labour government and its successor,
the fourth National government. The reforms (sometimes
called Rogernomics) made by these governments severely weakened the power
of unions, removed a lot of protection from workers, cut social welfare
benefits and made state housing less affordable. After these reforms,
the gap between rich and poor New Zealanders was increased dramatically, with
the incomes of the richest 10% of New Zealanders advancing while the other 90%
stayed largely static. In addition the number of New Zealanders living in
poverty is much higher than in the 1970s. In an article entitled
"Countries with the Biggest Gaps Between Rich and Poor", BusinessWeek
ranked New Zealand at 6th in the world.
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