Occupational prestige hierarchies have been used by many “functionalist” writers as empirical support for their theories of the universal necessity of certain forms of social stratification. Upon their research findings, which have indicated a broad similarity of occupational prestige cross-culturally, two explanations have been provided. Kerr et al. believe these similarities are the result of the convergence of industrial societies based upon the “logic of industrialism” and, more extreme, Marsh claims that the universal simitarity of prestige rankings in all complex societies is a product of the functional demands of any complex social system. p]This paper, based on comparable questionnaire data from Czechoslovakia and the U.S.A., demonstrates the invalidity of both explanations. The clear differences between the U.S.A. and Czechoslovakia fail to support the convergence thesis and, as a corollary, enforce scepticism about Marsh's functionalistic notion of universalized social structures. p]An alternative explanation is provided whereby the distinctive nature of Czechoslovakian stratification is seen an an interaction of structural changes associated with industrialization and state socialism. Additional evidence from Poland on aggregated prestige rankings reveals a basic similarity with the Czechoslovakian data and, therefore, it is suggested that both societies constitute a new type of social stratification.