Buckley Quote & Some Lecture Notes

Below is the quote from Walter Buckley, which I argued captures very well the conservative bias in Parsons' structural functionalism, as Inkeles and others also bring out:

"From many statements made by functionalists, it seemed possible to conclude that since a social system persisting a long time is functionally integrated, or has reached a state of 'equilibrium' it must have attained an ideal state of adjustment, whether in terms of individual happiness or common welfare. Such a situation, therefore, is evaluated as 'good' and must not be changed: what is, is best, and any change is for the worse."

And Buckley went on to note that, although this has been the interpretation made by some, functionalism can also have radical implications. It all depends on what is defined as a stable, healthy society.

Let me then pick up with some final observations about Robert Merton:

D. Finally, I believe we need to acknowledge a contribution of Merton's that I know I've made use of (although I wonder if it was really original with him) -- the concept of "SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY."

1. The authors note how "self-fulfilling prophecy" is connected with another well-known observation of W.I. Thomas -- "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." See examples of the banks, middle, p. 365. (This clearly has relevance to our recent financial crisis; in fact I heard this term used this morning with respect to the European financial crisis involving Greece.) Also, clearly has relevance in the racial area, where a strong belief in racial inferiority of some group may indeed lead individuals of that group to be inferior.

E. Finally, I would say the bottom-line with Merton is that, in various ways, he was challenging the accusation that functionalism is inherently conservative.


Section VIII Criticism, Marxism, Change

A. Again, a brief and not very informative introduction. The authors begin by summarizing the previous section as being about "...the more-or-less 'official' twentieth-century conservative capitalist theory and ideology of functionalism." (p. 393) (Perhaps, but I know such a view would clearly be rejected by functionalists and systems' theorists.)

B. Despite Marxist hopes for the demise of capitalism in the wake of the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, etc., it did not happen and indeed the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union led Marxist intellectuals to question it as a model.

C. Hence, the emergence in the 1920s of what is called "The Frankfurt School," which attempted to account for the failures and shortcomings of Soviet-style socialism, as well as criticizing Western capitalism but not strictly on economic grounds. These thinkers drew on other perspectives, perhaps most notably Freud (eg., Herbert Marcuse's "Eros and Civilization").
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That brings us up to Chapter 16, where I will probably pick up next Tuesday, although if time permits, I may blog some more notes.