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Functional and Inevitable - Coggle Diagram
Functional and Inevitable
Talcott Parsons
Order, stability and cooperation in society is based on value consensus, and stratification systems derive from value consensus.
If values exist, then individuals will be evaluated and placed in some form of rank and order, where those who perform successfully will be ranked highly and likely to receive rewards like high prestige.
Different societies have different value systems so ways of attaining a high position will vary from society to society. E.g. American society values individual achievement and efficiency so successful business executives who have achieved their position through their own initiative, ability and ambition, and run efficient and productive businesses will receive high rewards.
This suggests stratification is an inevitable part of all human societies and he recognised that in Western society there will be arrogance by some winners and a 'sour grape' attitude by some losers but he believed that thus conflict was kept in check by the common value system which justifies the unequal distribution of rewards.
Davis and Moore (1945)
Observe that stratification exists in every known human society and all social systems share certain functional prerequisites which must be met if the system is to survive and operate efficiently. One such prerequisite is effective role allocation and performance.
This means all roles must be filled and by those who are best able to perform them, with the necessary training undertaken, to be performed conscientiously.
Argued all societies need some mechanism to ensure effective role allocation and performance, and that this mechanism is social stratification, which they saw as a system that attaches unequal rewards and privileges to the different positions in society.
Certain positions are more functionally important than others and require special skills for effective performance and only a certain number of individuals have the ability to acquire these skills so the promise of high rewards is necessary to incentivise training and to compensate for the sacrifice involved, inducing good performance.
Implied that social inequality is an inevitable feature of human society and concluded that differential rewards are functional for society because they contribute to maintenance and well-being of social systems.
Tumin (1953)
He questioned the adequacy of Davis and Moore's measurement of the functional importance of positions, as they tended to assume that the most highly rewarded positions are indeed the most important.
Many occupations, however, which afford little prestige or economic reward, can be seen as vital to society. For example, unskilled workmen in a factory as well as engineers.
He also argued that they ignored the influence of power on the unequal distribution of rewards. Differences in pay and prestige between occupational groups may be due to differences in power rather than their functional importance- e.g. bankers.
He argued rather than motivate talented individuals to be allocated to functionally important roles, social stratification acts as a barrier to the motivation and recruitment of talent as hurdles members of the lower strata need to overcome can be daunting and discouraging. This is reflected in the tendency for those from lower classes to leave the education system earlier than those of higher classes.
He argued differential rewards can encourage hostility, and distrust among various segments of society and that in their search for the positive functions of stratification, functionalists have tended to ignore or play down its many dysfunctions.
Saunders (1990)
This neoliberalist does not accept that stratification systems based upon economic differences are inevitable but does agree that they are desirable.
He argues attempts to create equality of outcome undermine equality of opportunity and legal equality, and adopts a conceptualisation of equality based on the idea of entitlement.
Social justice is served when people are allowed to keep those things to which they are entitled. So long as people have earned their money or resources legally through their own work, then there should be no question of them being robbed of their possessions.
He argues that inequality is justified because it promotes economic growth, as allowing and encouraging people to pursue their own self-interest promotes the interests of society as a whole. Competition ensures that goods and services increase in quality and fall in price, making them more widely available.
The efforts of entrepreneurs makes some of them rich but at the same time society grows more affluent as it gains by their efforts- links to Thatcher's 'trickle down economy' , and Liz Truss' recent attempts to revive the policy.
Saunders sites cars, air travel, colour TVs and home computers as examples of things that have become affordable for ordinary people and clearly believes that competition in capitalist societies benefits the population.
He argues that Britain is close to meritocracy and that distribution of economic rewards is closely related to merit. However, this can be seen to be untrue in the age of influencing and extortionate salaries for football players, in comparison to the measly pay rises nurses are receiving.
Wilkinson and Pickett (2010)
In their book, 'The Spirit Level', they do not argue for the elimination of inequality as they believe that low levels of inequality are desirable, but that high levels of inequality are undesirable.
They identified that in Japan, the income of the richest 20% is less four times that of the poorest 20%, and that it is the least unequal society shown, compared to Singapore, where the richest get ten times the income of the poorest.
They examined a wide range of types of health and social problems like mental illness, life expectancy, educational performance, and drug abuse, finding a very strong relationship between high levels of income inequality and high levels of health and social problems.
For example, the two countries with the highest levels of income inequality, Portugal and the UK, also have the highest levels of health and social problems, while the reverse is true for Japan.
This shows that there does come a point where inequality becomes dysfunctional for healthy societies.
Gans (1994)
Suggests that everything works for the greater good, and that there is a need for the poor. The poor benefits society and they are as important as the upper and middle classes.
They act as a lesson for us to work harder, they help provide us with jobs, we feel good about ourselves when we help the poor and they carry out the jobs that no one else wants to do.
Social Darwinism- survival of the fittest (strongest make the decisions and become wealthy).