This is part of a larger project, the goal of which is to develop a theory of how stratified social orders are legitimated. The approach is self-evaluation theory, which attempts to ground the process through which legitimating norms arise within the formation of the self. The purpose of this essay is to use self-evaluation theory to help account for the rise of another, countervailing set of norms that delegitimate stratification by supporting the principle of equality. I draw heavily upon Max Weber's sociology of religion to show how such norms, which originate within the self, gain institutional support, and by so doing, become socially powerful enough to compete effectively with legitimating norms.
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