Structural theories – conflict theory Sociology Structural theories – conflict theory

Conflict Theory Conflict theory looks at the inequalities of life/society. According to conflict theory, inequality exists because those in control of most of society’s resources actively defend their advantages. This perspective is derived from the works of Karl Marx (1818 – 1883), who saw society as fragmented into groups that compete for social and economic resources.  In this view social order is maintained by domination, with power in the hands of those with the greatest political, economic, and social resources.

Conflict Theory According to this theory when consensus does exist, it is due to to people being united around common interests, often in opposition to other groups. An example would be the storyline of some very wealthy people using their money and status to persuade the government into creating policies which are beneficial to them, but are (the majority of the time) harmful to people who are not wealthy. This perspective emphasizes social control, not consensus and conformity. It argues that the majority of people are not bound to society by their shared values, but by coercion at the hands of those in power.

Conflict theory – Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) Those with the most resources exercise power over others resulting in inequality and power struggles. In industrial society, the capitalists, also known as the bourgeoisie, are the people who own businesses with the goal of earning a profit, and the working class is the proletariat, the people who work for wages. Marx posed a “materialist” way of understanding history, which is the idea that the material conditions of our existence, in other words, what we produce in order to live, and, how we go about doing so, determines all else in society. Building on this idea, Marx posed his theory of the relationship between base and superstructure.

Base and Superstructure Base refers to production—to all the people, relationships between them, the roles that they play, and the materials and resources involved in producing the things needed by society. Superstructure, quite simply and broadly, refers to all other aspects of society. It includes culture, ideology (ideas, values, and beliefs), norms and expectations, identities (roles) that people inhabit, social institutions (education, religion, media, family, among others), the state (the political system that governs society). Marx argued that the superstructure grows out of the base, and reflects the interests of the ruling class that controls the base, justifying how the base operates, and the power of the ruling class.

Base and Superstructure

Base and Superstructure Marx argued that the superstructure creates the conditions in which the relations of production seem right, just, or even natural, though in reality they may be deeply unjust, and designed to benefit only the minority ruling class, rather than the majority working class. For example, Marx argued that religious ideology that urged people to obey authority and work hard for salvation in the afterlife was a way in which superstructure justifies the base, because it generates an acceptance of one’s conditions as they are.

Hegemony Following Marx, Italian scholar and activist Antonio Gramsci (1891 – 1937) argued that consensus to rule is achieved in large part through cultural hegemony, which refers to domination, or rule, achieved through cultural means. 'Hegemony' in this theory means the success of the dominant classes in presenting their definition of reality, their view of the world, in such a way that it is accepted by other classes as 'common sense'. The general 'consensus' is that it is the only sensible way of seeing the world. Any groups who present an alternative view are therefore marginalized.

Hegemony In Gramsci's view, however, there is not in any sense a single dominant class, but, rather, a shifting and unstable association of different social classes. According to Gramsci's view there are on the one hand the dominant classes who seek to control all thought and behaviour within the terms and limits they set in accordance with their interests. On the other hand there are the dominated or subordinate classes who attempt to maintain and to further the authority and value of their own definitions of reality. There is therefore a continuing struggle for dominance between the definitions of reality (or ideologies) which serve the interests of the ruling classes and those which are held by other groups in society. 

Hegemony Because institutions do the work of socializing people into the norms, values, and beliefs of the dominant social group, if a group controls the institutions that maintain social order, then that group rules all others in society.  Cultural hegemony is most strongly exhibited when those ruled by the dominant group come to believe that economic and social conditions are natural and inevitable, rather than created by people with a vested interest in a particular social order. Marx and Gramsci also wrote about the role of the state—the political apparatus—in protecting the interests of the ruling class. In recent history, state bailouts of collapsing private banks has been viewed by some as an example of this.