More handpicked essays just for you.
Comparison of functionalist and marxist perspectives
Comparison of functionalist and marxist perspectives
Comparison of functionalist and marxist perspectives
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
A Comparison of Marxist and Functionalist Views on Society
There is a division between functionalists and Marxists over the
functions of the society.
Marxism was founded by Karl Marx. Marx saw society as divided into two
major parts, the economic base otherwise known as the infrastructure
and the super-structure. Functionalists see society as a set of parts
which work together to form a whole. Functionalism is also called a
consensus theory.
Marxism and functionalism are similar in that they see that the way
society is structured as an important part in determining the way
people have relationships and behave between themselves. This is known
as structural perspective. Both functionalists and Marxists believe
that people are portrayed as creature within the social system.
Functionalists believe that society operates to the benefit of
everybody. They stress that societies continue to exist because a lot
of the time there is consensus between various aspects of society.
They believe that family, education, govern...
Functionalism is basically a theory that describes the mental state of human beings through the combination of both behaviorism theory and the identity theory of the human mind. According to this theory, mental states of people are majorly identified or rather defined by what they frequently do and
Functionalism is a theory in which various social institutions and processes in society serve a significant function in order for society to continue
The functionalist paradigm focuses on the integration of society, and how society how its own groups which has their own functions to help improve the peoples lives. Functionalist paradigm fits in the category of macro-sociology, because it focuses on the patterns that shape an entire society. Functionalists believe that society is maintained through the thought of trust and consensus on moral values for ideal behavior. Working together will result in a stable social environment that will create equality. Conflicts or dysfunctions will be view as a disease in the social system. Social conflict paradigm believes that society is divided into many groups that have their own goals, and that certain parts of the world have the luck of benefiting economic dominan...
Functional theory is the defined as a framework for building theory that sees society complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Augusta Comte and Herbert Spence looked at society as a living organism. For example, an animals or person has organs that function together so does society. Organic solidarity is social unity based on a division of labor that results in people depending on each other. Emile Durkheim developed organic solidarity to explain individuals’ workers to specific bodily organs and a group of people to a body. Different bodily organs serve different functions, without these organs the body would die, and so would the individual organs. Some of the different functions are education, religion, economics, and family. In a society individual workers perform different kinds of labor, without which society could not function, nor could individual workers succeed.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World demonstrates key principles of Marxist literary theory by creating a world where mass happiness is the tool used by positions of power known as the Alphas to control the masses known as the Epsilons at the cost of the people's freedom to choose. The social castes of Brave New World, Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, draw parallels to the castes applied in Marxist literary theory, the Aristocracy, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat.
Everyone goes through stages of life and everyone goes through them differently, there are some people that will go through life and not have any problems. While there are some people who will go through life and then will get a disease that will slowly kill them. Does getting a disease in old age make it harder for a person to live the rest of their life out? The functionalist perspective would best explain the expected outcomes, because it tries to help out society and make sure there is some stability.
According to the humanities based themes, autonomy and responsibility are defined as “the individual person has the ability to make choices; with those choices comes a responsibility for the consequences of those choices.” [i] This can be related to the Communist Manifesto, which was written by Karl Marx in the 1800’s. Even deeper though, it correlates the class struggles that were apparent in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Marx knew there was a division of classes; the bourgeoisie was the wealthy upper class and they proletariats were the lower working classes of Europe. This is where the theme of autonomy and responsibility steps in and plays a role in the changes that were made in society. The proletariats recognized that they were treated unfairly, which led them to the decision of stepping up and taking a stand. Through the Communist Manifesto, they took responsibility and attained the equality they felt they deserved.
Functionalism is the oldest and most commonly used theoretical approach used to understand social issues. Functionalism is a macrosociological perspective that presents the idea that society consists of different components working together to help a society function as one. Sociolog...
.... Functionalism is much too conservative, and does not have a way to explain major changes in society. The conflict theory does not explain some of the more orderly and stable parts of society. They both make good points, and both have good arguments. I however, cannot endorse one over the other for the simple reason that they are both essentially wrong and right at the same time. A conflict theorist is correct in saying that money and power do give you special considerations, and conflicts are at the base of most social change, however, they are wrong in assuming that all social institutions are unstable. A functionalist is correct in saying that the society is made up of interdependent and interacting parts, but wrong in their conservative assumptions. A blend of the two would probably provide the greatest base for an argument and would probably be the most real.
The Usefulness of Functionalism for an Understanding of the Family The Functionalists see the family as an important and vital institution in society. They take a MACRO view and look at interdependence between the family and other organisations. Functionalists look at the positive parts to society but overlook the negatives. They emphasise on the value consensus and see the family as being universal. Other people’s outlooks disagree with this view, such as the Marxists, the Marxist Feminists and the Radical Feminists.
Ø In particular with Durkheim’s work, it is too optimistic and maintains the idea of social solidarity as the main theme, and simply believes pathologies can be solved through simple social reform, ignoring any problems or conflict and the affects. Ø Marxists argue that the modern family is organised to support and benefit the ruling class and the capitalist economy, rather than benefiting all of society. In particular, they accuse functionalists for ignoring the fact that power is not equally distributed in society. Some groups have more wealth and power than others and may be able to impose their norms and values as less powerful groups.
Structural Functionalism or what I call just functionalism, is just another theory that has society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through the macro-level of orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. This approach looks at both social structure and the social functions. Functionalism has society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms and customs, traditions, and institutions. There is a common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer that presents these parts of society as "organs" that works towards the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole. In the most basic terms, it simply emphasizes "the effort to impute and the rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or even practice the effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable and cohesive system.
Ultimately, the government negatively affects the way certain characters live through controlling their lifestyles. This control also threatens their individuality, free will, thoughts, and development. The character of Bernard Marx is the epitome of the World State’s failure to create a perfect, happy society. “Too little bone and brawn had isolated Bernard from his fellow men, another sense of this apartness, being, by all the current standards, a mental excess, became in its turn a cause of wider separation” (Huxley 67). Despite the World State’s attempt to create a feign happiness, Bernard is separated from the conditioned society because of his mental excess. This mental excess can be seen in the human qualities Bernard possesses, that most citizens in the community lack.
The structural-functionalist perspective looks at society as a complex system composed of various parts much like a living organism. Each aspect of society contributes to society's functioning as a whole. Social institutions play a key role in keeping a society stable. All societies need certain things to survive (Newman 2010).
We see many of fields of society for example; government, educational, cultural and many more. Sociology is importantly the basis for almost all policies and idea which shape the world we are in. For example; Harriet Martineau, first female sociologists brought attention to ignored topics such as marriage, children, domestic and religious life and race relations. Without this idea being brought it up it would have always been an issue from society. Solving topics are so beneficial to making our society a better place. On a personal level it’s really changed my vision in the world. This enables us to understand paradigms. Structural functionalism was inspired partly by Durkheim, he stated that society is defined as a social system, with structures organized in an orderly way to form an organic, stable whole. This system enables us to understand and meet the circumstances in order to