hierarchical society
Tiered social order
A hierarchical society is one organized into distinct ranks or levels of status, power, or privilege.
The term usually carries critical connotations, suggesting rigid stratification where some groups hold authority over others: Medieval Europe was a hierarchical society with nobles, clergy, and peasants.
The phrase often appears in discussions contrasting such arrangements with more egalitarian alternatives.
- ruling classDominant governing stratum
- proletariatLaborers lacking capital ownership
- classGrouping by shared traits
- casteInherited social division
- caste systemHereditary class division
serfdom · bourgeoisie · rank · aristocracy · wage labor · know your place · peasantry · feudalism · nobility · upper crust · old money · oligarchy · autocracy · cultural hegemony · wealth disparity · bureaucracy · governance · subordination
hierarchical societyegalitarian society
Group with equal status
classless society · egalitarianism · communal society · communism · kibbutz
hierarchical societydemocracy
Rule by the people
direct democracy · participatory democracy · anarchy · cooperative · collective
hierarchy, hierarchic, hierarchically, hierarchies, hierarch, social, society, societies, societal