Essays in Sociological Theory by Talcott Parsons

Author:Talcott Parsons
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: The Free Press A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
Published: 1954-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

XII

The Problem of Controlled

Institutional Change

THE MEMBERS OF the Conference reached definite agreement on the important conclusion that the sources of German aggressive expansionism are not merely a matter of the particular recent situation in which the German nation has been placed, or of the character and policies of a particular régime which can be expected to vanish with the fall of the régime. Although drawn out and accentuated by these factors, the more important sources lie deeper and would not necessarily be seriously affected by chances at these levels.

The principal emphasis of the Conference was on the existence of a typical German character structure which predisposes people to define all human relations in terms of dominance, submission, and romantic revolt. It was, however, also agreed that such a typical character structure, although probably an independent factor 1 of great significance, is supported by, and closely interdependent with, an institutional structure of German society. The interdependence is such that on the one hand any permanent and far-reaching change in the orientation of the German people probably cannot rest on a change of character structure alone, but must also involve institutional change; otherwise, institutional conditions would continue to breed the same type of character structure in new generations. On the other hand, it may prove that a direct attack on character structure as such is less promising than one through other forces that operate on the institutional system and which, through changes in that, may serve to create conditions favorable to a change in character structure.

Analytical Introduction

INSTITUTIONS IN THE SOCIAL SYSTEM

The institutional structure of a society must be regarded as a special aspect of the total social system. Especially for purposes of considering the possibilities of dynamic change in institutions it is essential to treat them systematically and explicitly in terms of their interdependence with the other principal elements of the system.

Institutions are those patterns which define the essentials of the legitimately expected behavior of persons insofar as they perform structurally important roles in the social system. There are, of course, many degrees of conformity or lack of it, but a pattern is “institutionalized” only insofar as at least a minimum degree of conformity is legitimately expected—thus its absence treated with sanctions at least of strong disapproval— and a sufficient degree of conformity on the part of a sufficient proportion of the relevant population exists so that this pattern defines the dominant structural outline of the relevant system of concrete social relationships. It is the structurally significant elements of the total concrete relationship pattern which are institutionally relevant. What these are cannot be decided in terms of the subjective sentiments of participant observers but only in the perspective of structural analysis of the social system.

Institutional patterns are the “backbone” of the social system. But they are by no means absolutely rigid entities and certainly have no mysteriously “substantial” nature. They are only relatively stable uniform resultants of the processes of behavior of the members of the society, and hence of the forces which determine that behavior.

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