Assess The Contribution Of Functionalist And New Right Theories And Research To Our Understanding Of Society Today

Assess the contribution of Functionalist and New Right theories and research to our understanding of society today (33)
Functionalism is a consensus theory which is based on the theory that society is based on agreement among members of society regarding values, goals and rules in society. Key ideas of functionalism can be traced back to its founder, Emile Durkheim, who introduced concepts such as social facts and the collective conscience to Sociology. Durkheim used the concept of social facts during his study of suicide to describe how society controls the individual. He believed that the level of external constraint within society shaped individuals behaviour; in this case making members of society commit suicide. Examples of social facts defined by Durkheim are money, law and language. Durkheim believes that social facts such as these are objective (cannot be measured), external (exist before and beyond us), and constraining (they place limits on our actions). Furthermore, Durkheim also introduced the concept of the collective conscience – he believed that changes in modern society were weakening social solidarity and therefore we need institutions to act together to prevent a state of anomie.
While Durkheim introduced many key concepts and ideas which contribute to our understanding of society today, another functionalist, Parsons, also has been key within the Functionalist theory of Sociology. Parsons introduced the concept of society as a social system – institutions such as the family and education all work together to make society function. For example, the family socialises a child which teaches them basic norms and values of society. From there, education takes over through secondary socialisation (norms and values regarding behaviour in a professional, hierarchal environment, i.e. not being late, respecting elders, respecting authority). Functionalists, unlike conflict structuralists, believe that society is based on merit and institutions such as education (better grades, harder work means better jobs in the long run) help to reinforce this and teach young children that this is the way society works. Relating to the theory that society is based on institutions, Parsons developed the organic analogy in which he claimed the family is the heart of the body of society.
He also believed that having a shared culture is essential to social order. Parsons believed that this was achieved through socialisation and social control. Social control rewards good behaviour while punishing the bad, while socialisation passes values down through generations. Furthermore, Parsons uses the GAIL theory to identify how the needs of society are met. The first of the four needs is goal attainment, where society sets goals and allocates resources to achieve them (this is done through institutions such as the local and national government – the political system). The second is adaptation, in which the material needs of society, such as wages, are met. Thirdly, integration – different institutions must work together within society. And finally, latency, which refers to how the whole system of society is maintained and kept going. An example of this could be the role of the family in socialising and letting off steam.
Therefore both Durkheim and Parsons, as functionalists, have attempted to answer the question of how society works and how its needs are met, which has contributed a great deal towards our understanding of society today. However, there are many criticisms of the theory of functionalism and Durkheim and Parson’s work from other theories as well as internal criticisms from other functionalists such as Merton. Merton criticises some of Parson’s theories because he believes, like other theories do, that some aspects of functionalism have a ‘rose-tinted view’ of the world – i.e. that everything is positive. Merton, while being a functionalist himself, on the other hand admits that there are some dysfunctional elements of society that can be harmful (e.g. religion which can cause conflict). While Parsons believes that the certain institutions, such as the Nuclear family, perform certain tasks such as socialisation best, Merton argues that other institutions can perform these tasks just as well (i.e. single parent families can perform tasks just as well as nuclear families). As well as these internal criticisms of functionalism, there are also external criticisms. Other theories, especially Marxism, believe that functionalism over emphasizes the ‘consensus’ aspect of society and ignores conflict. Feminists criticise functionalism by arguing that it ignores problems such as the patriarchy and also that the theory itself is sexist – they believe that all women should be housewives rather than take up real positions in society. A New Right criticism of the functionalist theory is that they fail to take into account the reliance upon the state by many lower class citizens – functionalists simply see society as having minimal problems.
The New Right theory is a theory which believes that the traditional nuclear family is under threat from an emerging ‘culture of dependency’. This culture of dependency forms when individuals of the lower classes find it easier to claim welfare benefits than to work. Charles Murray is a New Right sociologist who created the term ‘underclass’ to describe those people who live solely off benefits and do not work.
New Right sociologists believe that the Nuclear family is the best family institution for society and should not be replaced. They believe that children brought up in families other than nuclear families where adults aren’t working or are a part of the underclass will be socialised poorly as they will believe it is okay to be like their parents and therefore they will develop the ‘wrong’ norms and values.
The New Right therefore blames the society as well as the individual for the emergence of the underclass as it is society’s fault that there are mechanisms which exist to maintain individuals in a state of dependence and vulnerability – rather than encouraging or forcing them to change their own positions within society.
The New Right’s perspective on the solution for these problems within society is a complete removal of the welfare state within society in order to solve problems of poverty. They believe that lower-classes, or underclass citizens, should be helped to return to a state of self-reliance.
The New Right theory had a very significant impact on the understanding of society in modern times. For example, the New Right way of thinking dominated the political agenda on the family in the early 1990s. This was noticeable in the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, which introduced policies such as the dismantling of the welfare state and the restructuring of the national workforce in order to help the ‘underclass’ to a state of self-reliance.
However, there are also criticisms of the New Right theory. Many criticise the theory for being ‘anti-poor’. Marxists, for example, would argue that inequality is not the individual’s fault, but it is capitalism’s fault. Feminists would further argue that the New Right do not take the patriarchy or female oppression into account.
However, despite criticisms of these theories, it is clear to see that they have both contributed a great deal in terms of the understanding of society today. Functionalism has provided us with a lot of key concepts, ideas and terms which have dominated sociological thinking since their conception, while New Right theories dominated political thinking in the 1990s.