The Complex Interaction of Economic Power and Social Structure in the Transformation of Modern Society: A Case Study of the Transformation of the Status of Anglo-Japanese Businessmen

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_87How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Economic Power; Social Structure; Businessman Status; United Kingdom; Japan

Abstract

The transformation of the status of British and Japanese merchants in modern times shows different patterns of interaction between economic power and social structure. Based on Marxist class theory, Weber’s social stratification theory, and historical institutionalism, this paper conducts a comparative study on the complex interaction between economic forces and social structure in the social transformation of modern Britain and Japan. In Britain, the merchant class promoted the transformation of the social structure to a bourgeoisie-dominated capitalist order with the help of the parliamentary system and market-oriented traditions accumulated through the Industrial Revolution. In contrast, the transformation of the power structure of Japanese businessmen requires long-term dependence on the political power system. The results of this difference are in line with the perspective of Marxist class theory and reflect the difference in the path of class relations reform. At the same time, this paper emphasizes the development path of the dynamic interaction of the three dimensions of class, status, and power in Weber’s theory.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Minghui Yin
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/15
TI  - The Complex Interaction of Economic Power and Social Structure in the Transformation of Modern Society: A Case Study of the Transformation of the Status of Anglo-Japanese Businessmen
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Mental Growth and Human Resilience (MGHR 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 786
EP  - 793
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_87
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_87
ID  - Yin2025
ER  -