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Chapter 10:Conflict Theory
Rise of Conflict Theory
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Based upon Marxist ideals and thoughts
Revitalized in the 1950’s by many
American sociologists
一.What is Conflict Theory?
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Conflict theory generally surrounds the idea
that most struggles in society happen
because of conflicts between different social
classes or groups
Each group struggles to attain more
resources and because resources are scarce,
they must struggle with other groups
Groups try to protect their own interests,
therefore blocking the progress of other
groups
Conflict cont.
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Individuals have aggressive impulses and
these impulses are expressed in all
relationships, especially close relationships
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Love and Hate
Outside influences influence our emotions
and cause conflict with those around us
From conflict comes social change
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American Revolution
Civil Rights (1960’s)
Conflict as a Binding
Element
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We often mistake conflict as always
being a dividing factor, it can instead
have quite the opposite reaction
When two groups are pitted against
one another, the bonds between
members of each group within itself
become much closer
Violence, Conflict, and
Change
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Violence can often bring about change
Some individuals believe violence is an
accomplishment and therefore create as
much as possible
Violence can also point out problems that
might not be obvious
Violence can bring about public activism and
force change through public attitudes
What is conflict
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What is conflict?
Definitions of social conflict
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Social conflict is a struggle over values or
claims to status, power, and scarce resources
The aims of the conflict groups are not only to
gain the desired values, but also to neutralize,
injure, or eliminate rivals.
Social conflict encompasses a broad range of
social phenomena: class, racial, religious, and
communal conflicts; riots, rebellions,
revolutions; strikes and civil disorders;
marches, demonstrations, protest gatherings.
Theory of Social Conflict
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A comprehensive theory of social conflict encompasses:
 The structural sources of social conflict, relying on
stratification, social change, and macro-sociological
theories.
 Conflict-group formation and the mobilization for
collective action of challenging groups and their
targets. For this topic, theories of collective action,
social capital, recruitment, participation,
commitment, and internal structure are useful.
 The dynamics of conflict: processes of interaction
between conflict groups; the forms of conflict; its
magnitude, scope, and duration; escalation and deescalation; conflict regulation and resolution; conflict
outcomes.
There are numerous causes of conflict at all levels
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Communication failure
Leadership Personality
Value differences
 Cultural differences
 Ethnic differences
 Civilization
Goal differences
Technology differences
Military built-up
 Lack of cooperation
 External support
 Group cohesion
Economic competition
Military competition
Competition over natural
resources such as water, forests,
oil, gems etc
Major Proposition of Conflict
Theories
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Society is not a system in equilibrium but a
nebulous structure of imperfectly coordinated
elements
Change and conflict are continuous and normal;
inherent predilections to change vary in scope,
nature, intensity and degree
Every society experiences at every moment
social conflict
Every element in a society contributes to its
change
Every society rests on constrain of some of its
members by others
Social universe is the setting within which the
conflict of life are acted out
Marx and conflict theory
Karl Marx
Focussed on economic conditions under
capitalism.
 Society is product of economic production.
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Productive forces: technology, energy, resources.
Productive relations: owner-worker; workerworker.
Class is a power relationship.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
“There must be something
rotten in the very core of a
social system which increases
in wealth without diminishing
its misery, and increases in
crime even more than its
numbers.”
Marx, K. (1859). Population,
crime and pauperism.Collected
Works, (16).
Friedrich Engels (1920-1995)
Portrayed crime as a
function of social
demoralization- a
collapse of people’s
humanity reflecting a
decline in society. The
brutality of the
capitalist system turns
workers into animal-like
creatures without a will
of their own.
Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels
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Social relations
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Capitalism
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Are determined by productive relations and
the means of production.
Encourages exploitation of workers in pursuit
of profit (surplus value).
Workers rise up against the owners.
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Crime is a product of misery, inequality and
social demoralization.
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Society
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Laws
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Is composed of have and have-nots, rulers
and ruled.
Reflect the interests of the dominant class.
Capitalism
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Encourages egoism and criminality by
equating status with property.
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Punishment
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Economic inequality
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Only crimes of the poor are punished.
Intensifies personal problems and crime.
Crime
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Will virtually disappear with equal
distribution of property.
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The justice system operates to
protect the rich and powerful by:
how crimes are defined.
 how laws are enforced.
 how law-breakers are punished.
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Power relations
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Conflict is rooted in the
competition for power.
Power provides the means to
influence public opinion for
private gain.
Those in power use the law
to criminalize those without
power (e.g. minority groups).
Table 10.1 summarizes Marx's assumptions about the social world and the
key forces behind conflict and change in societies
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Ⅰ. The more unequal is the distribution of scarce resources in a society, the greater is the
basic conflict of interest between its dominant and subordinate segments,
Ⅱ. The more subordinate segments become aware of their true collective interests,the more
likely they are to question the legitimacy of the existing pattern of distribution of scarce
resources.
Ⅲ Subordinates are more likely to become aware of their true collective interests when
A, Changes wrought by dominant segments disrupt existing relations among subordinates.
B. Practices of dominant segments create alienative dispositions.
C. Members of subordinate segments can communicate their grievances to one another,
which, in turn, is facilitated by
1. The ecological concentration among members of subordinate groups.
2. The expansion of educational opportunities for members of subordinate groups.
D. Subordinate segments can develop unifying ideologies, which, in turn, is facilitated by
1. The capacity to recruit or generate ideological spokespeople.
2. The inability of dominant groups to regulate socialization processes and communication
networks among subordinates.
Ⅳ, The more that subordinate segments of a system become aware of their collective
interests and question the legitimacy of the distribution of scarce resource. the more likely
they are to join in overt conflict against dominant segments of a system, especially when
A. Dominant groups cannot clearly articulate, nor act in, their collective interests,
B, Deprivations of subordinates move from an absolute to a relative basis, or escalate
rapidly,
C, Subordinate groups can develop a political leadership structure.
Ⅴ. The greater is the ideological unification of members of subordinate segments of a system
and the more developed is their political leadership structure, the more likely are the
interests and relations between dominant and subjugated segments of a society to become
polarized and irreconcilable.
Ⅵ.The more polarized are the dominant and subjugated, the more will the conflict be violent.
Ⅶ.The more violent is the conflict, the greater is the amount of the structural change within
a society and the greater is the redistribution of scarce resources.
MAX WEBER AND CONFLICT THEORY
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According to Weber, the
stratification of society was based
on a broader range of factors,
including
....wealth
....power
....prestige
And one could have any one of
these to be in a “higher” class.....
Conflict and Radical Theories
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Examine structural causes of crime
Crime and law enforcement are often
political acts rooted in group or class
conflict
Causes of crime are seen as rooted in
conflict that stems from inequality
Conflict vs. Radical Theories
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Conflict theories
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Max Weber
Georg Simmel
Inequality based on differences in wealth,
status, ideas, religious beliefs etc.
Differences result in formation of interest
groups that struggle with each other for
power
Conflict is pluralistic
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Max Weber
Dimensions of inequality
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Power
Wealth
Prestige
Conflict is most likely when these 3 kinds of
stratification coincide
Conflict is also likely when access to these
positions are highly restricted
Table 10.2 Weber's Abstracted Propositions on Conflict
Processes
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Ⅰ. Subordinates are more likely to pursue conflict with superordinates
when they withdraw legitimacy from political authority.
Ⅱ. Subordinates are more likely to withdraw legitimacy from political
authority when
A. The correlation among memberships in class, status group, and
political hierarchies is high.
B. The discontinuity or degrees of inequality in t he resource
distributions within social hierarchies is high.
C. Rates of social mobility up social hierarchies of power, prestige,
and wealth are low.
Ⅲ. Conflict between superordinates and subordinates~ becomes~ more likely
when charismatic leaders can mobilize resentments of subordinates.
Ⅳ. When charismatic leaders are successful in conflict, pressures mount to
routinize authority through new systems of rules and administration.
Ⅴ. As a system of rules and administrative authority is imposed, the more
likely are conditionsⅡ-A,Ⅱ-B, andⅡ-C to be met, and hence, the more
likely are new subordinates to withdraw legitimacy from political authority
and to pursue conflict with the new subordinates, especially when new
traditional and ascriptive forms of political domination are imposed by
elites.
Table 10.4 Simmel's Abstracted Propositions on Conflict
Processes
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Ⅰ. The level of violence in conflict increases when
A. The parties to the conflict have a high degree of emotional involvement,
which, in turn, is related to the respective levels of solidarity among parties to
the conflict.
B. The membership of each conflict party perceives the conflict to transcend
their individual self-interests, which, in turn, is related to the extent to which
the conflict is about value-infused issues.
Ⅱ The level of violence in conflict is reduced when the conflict is instrumental
and perceived by the conflict parties to be a means to clear-cut and delimited
goals.
Ⅲ Conflict will generate the following among the parties to a conflict:
A. Clear group boundaries.
B. Centralization of authority and power.
C. Decreased tolerance of deviance and dissent.
D. Increased internal solidarity among memberships of each party, but
particularly for members of minority parties and for groups engaged in self
defense.
Ⅳ. Conflict wig have integrative consequences for the social whole when
A. Conflict is frequent, low in intensity, and low in violence, which, in
turn, allows disputants to release hostilities.
B, Conflict occurs in a system whose members and subunits reveal high levels
of functional interdependence, which, in turn, encourages the creation of
normative agreements to regulate the conflict so that the exchange of resources is
not disrupted.
C. Conflict produces coalitions among various conflicting parties.
Dahrendorf
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West German
Very critical of functional theory
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Thought functional theory was “utopian”
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Presented a perfect society
Too conservative
Tried to incorporate a dialectical view
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Conflict leading to change
Use Marx, Weber, and Simmel
His World
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Post-war Germany
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Split between a capitalist West and a
communist East
No new societal movements or conflict
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Mass movements like Fascism or Socialism not
present
A non-ideological age
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“struggles” over technical issues no the very nature
of society
Both East and West dominated by large
organizations
ICA
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Imperatively Coordinated Associations
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Derived from Weber and legal rational
authority
Power with an ICA based on position in the
ICA
Power is power of others
A source of conflict
Quasi Group
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Those who are ruled in the organization
ICA
Not aware of their common postion
Sounds like Marx and class
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Common objective interest
Need to move to class consciosness
Class based on power not economics
Social Change
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Conflict is over authority in ICA
Results in new distribution of authority
within the ICA
Many ICAs in a society
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Marx’s concept of two classes become
many classes but two per an ICA
Why limited conflict
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Takes form Simmel
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Differs from Marx
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We belong to many ICAs
They are overlapping and limited
Marx had only two major classes and they
covered all of society
Differs from Weber
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Authority and power in an organization
Lewis Coser
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An American Sociologist
A Functional conflict theorist
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Seems like a conflict
But tried to bring conflict into a general
functionalist perspective
Deeply influenced by Simmel
Main Points
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Conflict not given enough attention in
functional thought
Conflict need not be “pathological”
Conflict can lead to adaptation and
social order
Not a dialectical theorist
Still put an emphasis on consensus
Conclusion
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A major change in course in sociology
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From consensus to conflict
Away from functional thought
But perhaps too much emphasis on
conflict