Final answer:
Conflict theory, founded by Karl Marx, explains how hierarchy leads to conflict among humans and separates society into two classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Step-by-step explanation:
Conflict theory, created by the late 19th-century political philosopher Karl Marx, offers a more pessimistic view. Marx argued that hierarchy is not a means of keeping society balanced but rather the main source of conflict among humans. He and Friedrich Engels originally conceptualized two classes of capitalism in terms of ownership. The bourgeoisie descended from powerful families, were the owners of the means of production, while the proletariat were those who sold their labor and lived off a wage. The powerless majority, the proletariat, were far removed from the decision makers and power holders, who had separated the proletariat from their skills through industrialization and mechanization. In this view, the conflict between those with wealth and the means of production and those without is the basis of all social conflict.