Abstract
Recent trends in stratification analysis have been characterised by theoretical developments crossing Marxism, status attainment models and Weberian theory. Using a status-attainment model, Wright's and Goldthorpe's construction and a classification scheme worked out for the Swiss Census office, this article will attempt to describe Swiss social stratification and examine whether `social classes are dying'. Each of these measures is a valuable, if variable, indicator of social structure, but the associations are stronger between classifications and structural criteria than between classifications and attitudinal indicators. On the other hand, there is no single best predictor among the indicators of hierarchical location; their `fit' varies with the topic considered and the dimensions involved in the explanation. Furthermore, even if the theoretically best grounded variables permit subtler interpretation, a more pragmatic construction yields better empirical coefficients. Finally, such an approach allows us to specify some essential characteristics of the Swiss system of stratification.
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