The purpose of this article is to define a theoretical construct of
social differentiation. Social differentiation is defined as the number of different structured roles in a relatively self-sufficient system
of interdependent structured roles that, directly or indirectly, enable
individuals in the system to meet their basic biological needs for
food, shelter, clothing, safety, mobility, and so on. System is opera tionalized as an autonomous territorial political unit. A ratio
measure isomorphic to this definition is constructed and may be
applied uniformly to all societies ranging from the simplest to the
most complex. A theoretical construct and measure of structural
differentiation are also defined to measure how systems (autonomous political units) differ in the structure of their differentiation.
Although much work remains to be done, this article is intended as
one step in a direction that may illuminate an important subject
matter.
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