Social class in New Zealand

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Class in New Zealand is a product of both Māori and Western social structures. New Zealand was traditionally supposed to be a 'classless society' but this claim is problematic in a number of ways, and has been clearly untrue since at least the 1980s.

[edit] Māori hierarchies

Māori society has traditionally been one based on rank, which derived from ancestry (whakapapa). Chiefs were invariably descended from other chiefs, although chieftainship was not the exclusive right of the first born son of the previous chief. If he did not show signs of leadership ability he would be passed over in favour of a brother or other relative. In some tribes women could take on leadership roles, although this was not usual. Women, lowly born men, and even people from other tribes were able to achieve positions of considerable influence. Such people have included Princess Te Puea Herangi and 'kingmaker' Wiremu Tamihana.^[1] Until the advent of Christianity it was normal for prisoners of war to be enslaved. Slaves had no rights and could be killed at the will of their master. However their children were free members of the tribe.

Present-day Māori society is far less hierarchial than it traditionally was, although it is still stratified by Pakeha standards. A disproportionate number of Māori MPs come from chiefly families, for example. However, a number of lowly-born Māori have achieved positions of considerable mana within their communities by virtue of their achievements or learning.

[edit] The 'classless society'

Until about the 1980s it was often claimed that New Zealand was a 'classless society'. Historian Keith Sinclair wrote in 1969 that although New Zealand was not a classless society, "it must be more nearly classless... than any advanced society in the world".^[2] From the nineteenth century many visitors also made this claim, for example British socialists Sidney and Beatrice Webb. The evidence for this was the relatively small range of wealth (that is, the wealthiest did not earn hugely more than the poorest earners), lack of deference to authority figures, high levels of class mobility, a high standard of working class living compared to Britain, progressive labour laws which protected workers and encouraged unionism, and a welfare state which was developed in New Zealand before most other countries.

Recently James Belich has argued that most of this is not evidence of an absence of class but rather of the relatively high status and standard of living of the working class in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Unlike in Britain at this time, New Zealand working class people could regularly eat meat, own their own homes, and own horses (and later cars), while still being working class.^[3] Until the advent of compulsory secondary education in the 1930s, class mobility was limited, although much less so than in Britain.

It has also been argued that in New Zealand race takes the place of class, with Māori and other Polynesians earning less, having a lower standard of living and less education, and working in lower status jobs than Pakeha.^[4] They also face prejudice akin to that facing working class people in many European countries. Some argue that New Zealand only became a (white) 'workingman's paradise' because of the marginalisation of Māori and in particular the appropriation of Māori land.

New Zealanders' egalitarianism has been criticised as discouraging and denigrating ambition and individual achievement and success. New Zealanders tend to value modesty and distrust those who talk about their own merits. They especially dislike anyone who seems to consider themselves better than others even if the person in question is demonstrably more talented or successful than others. It is partly for this reason that mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary is so admired in New Zealand; despite being the first person to climb Mount Everest he has always been very modest. Extreme humility was arguably partly responsible for the early death of Prime Minister Norman Kirk, who may have survived his various health problems had he used his status to get preferential treatment from the public health system, or used private healthcare.^[5] This attitude can manifest itself in the tall poppy syndrome, which describes the 'cutting down' of anyone thought to have risen above the general mass of people.

New Zealand's claims to be a classless society were dealt a fatal blow in the 1980s and 1990s by the economic reforms of the fourth Labour government and its successor, the fourth National government. The reforms made by these governments severely weakened the power of unions, removed a lot of protection from workers, cut social welfare benefits and made state housing less affordable. As the result, the gap between rich and poor New Zealanders has increased dramatically, with the incomes of the richest 10% of New Zealanders advancing while the other 90% stayed largely static. In addition the number of New Zealanders living in poverty is much higher than in the 1970s.^[6] However although wealth is much more unevenly distributed than previously, New Zealand still lacks most of the overt signals of class which mark countries such as Britain. Most people do not care what others' parents do for a living, who a person is descended from, or where they went to school, and New Zealanders almost invariably have more respect for those who have earned their money through hard work than those who have inherited it or made it through investment.

[edit] References

1. ^ Wiremu Tamihana in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography:
2. ^ Sinclair, Keith (1969), A History of New Zealand, 2nd edn, p.285.
3. ^ Belich, James (1996), Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders from Polynesian Settlement until the End of the Nineteenth Century, pp.328-32.
4. ^ Cluny Macpherson (1977), 'Polynesians in New Zealand: An Emerging Eth-Class?', in David Pitt, ed., Social Class in New Zealand, pp.99-112.
5. ^ Hayward, Margaret (1981), Diary of the Kirk Years.
6. ^ Tim Hazeldine (1998) Taking New Zealand Seriously: The Economics of Decency.