Social Conflict Theory Term Paper Examples

<h2>Abstract</h2> <p>The paper will address the social conflict theory that was instigated by Karl Marx in the 18th century. The theory had been in place since then but has undergone various changes with the changes in the society. The paper will exploit the developmental journey of the theory and discuss what was added or subtracted from the original ideologies of the theory in modernity. Moreover, there will be an examination of how the theory came to be. For instance, Marx came up with the theory after witnessing first-hand the exploitation of the lower class. He developed the theory to explain <!--more-->the exploitation. Therefore, the paper will go into detail on such. It will also highlight the development of the Marx theory and incorporation of theories such as the feminist theories. It will examine how the social conflict theory was shapes in the modern age and the things that determine its ideals. Social theories have been backed up by empirical research, which must be addressed in this paper. The strengths and weaknesses of the identified research and those that associate with how the theory developed will also be discussed.</p> <h2>Introduction</h2> <p>Social conflict theory is a concept that argues that relationships in the society are imbalanced and exist as a way to exploit people. The theory notes that the social groups or classes that constitute the community have varying amounts of resources, leading to the classification of the poor and the rich. The theory is premised on Marxism, who preaches on the exploitation of the weak by those who are economically advantaged. Social evolution, which denotes the growth of the society and relationships in it, gave rise to social conflicts in which those relationships occur for exploitation purposes. The economically strong have achieved their status through the exploitive means because that is how they gain. An example is when an employer pays an employee less than they deserve because they want to keep a magnitude of the profits. The discussion will be about the historical foundations of the theory, its development, and empirical research done in the areas while highlighting the weaknesses and strengths in both.</p> <h2>Karl Marx Conflict Theory Essays</h2> <p>The social conflict theory has its origin, as stipulated above, in thinkers such as Karl Marx. Other scholars have refined the ideologies behind the theories over time, and include people such as Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes. Even so, Karl Marx is known as the father of the social conflict theory. It has its roots deep in the eighteenth century, when Marx noted the classification of the society into the ruling and working classes of individuals (Rossides, 1998). The two classes formed the society and were defined solely by financial well-being. Karl Marx, a German, noted the need for a revolution or reform in the society that existed in the eighteenth century. The reason is that the bourgeoisie were seen to exploit the proletariats, who mainly formed the bulk of the working class. At the time, there were many bids for the revolution of the German society where government was to be taken away from the ruling class that constituted of the wealthy. What the theorist noted is that the people had surrendered all their rights to the government that was run by the wealthy. As a result, it had all the power and controlled all the means of production. The ruling class was also in charge of the political and legal systems. In such a way, the working class was left at the mercy of the ruling class that deeply exploited it.<br /> What instigated the origin of the theory in the century was when Marx determined that the work that was done by the workers was what led to the growth of the society (Stolley, 2005). He, therefore, found it ironic that the same people that cause the society to be what it is should be exploited. The society that they create through their work establishes relationships that are materialistic in nature. The emergence and growth of society in history were divided into three parts. The parts, namely economic, political, and social structures were responsible for the formation of the society. These three aspects came about as a result of the formation of relationships in the society. In the 19th century, the theory was based on criticism of the capitalism that was witnessed in most of the countries. Capitalism was seen as a major contributing factor towards what shaped the social conflict theory. The nineteenth century was a rush by many societies to a acquire wealth. They embraced the aspect of capitalism that propelled the society into formation of classes. There was a need for people to work in the broad industrialization that has spread throughout Europe. In addition, the aspect of private ownership of land caused an exploitation of the people who did not own property. Those who were in an advantageous position controlled legal and political institutions. Socialism stopped playing any role in how wealth was distributed in the society. To maintain the way things were, the ruling class developed a legal framework that was not favorable to the working class. Those who owned the capital controlled the politics and laws that could be used to change things. After carefully analyzing the situation, Karl Marx developed the social conflict theory. He also noted that those who were in a higher economic position had the power, given through political institutions, to make the working class do as they wished. Because of such mistreatments, there were conflicts in the society that existed between the two social groups. The conflict developed in the 1920s to include the aspect of intellectual controls. It was observed that the ruling class controlled how people thought by imposing ideas on them. The intellectualism of society, therefore, was in conflict because human beings have the freedom to think, but the ruling class made decisions for them.<br /> The 1950s were a period when sociologists exploited the theory that Marx had come up with and refined it accordingly. The theory was developed from the rawness that was used by Marx into something that reflected the changes that had occurred at the time. Society is not a permanent entity and is exposed to radical changes in the social, economic, legal and political system. For instance, Max Webber introduced the emotional aspect of the theory. He stated that the theory did not just involve the struggle for dominance in social classes, but had other aspects as well. Such issues included the ruling class using religion to instigate a particular behavior on people and control their emotions. In this sense, the ruling class would have absolute control power over individuals. Even so, the nineteenth century saw a lot of revolutions from followers of Marxism in scope of the social conflict theory (Eagly, Baron, Hamilton & Kelman, 2004). The German and Russian revolutions are good examples. The revolutions sought to seek control of legal and political systems because that is when the lower class could be completely free.<br /> In the wake of the rights of women, social conflict theory developed in the 1960s to facilitate the issues of the discrimination of women (Martindale, 1960). The theory was then referred to as the feminist conflict theory. The feminists argued that women were oppressed by men, and a conflict existed between the two groups of people. It was no longer about the rich and poor only, but also about men and women. Men wanted to maintain the position that was traditionally seen as theirs while women wanted more freedom and opportunities in mainstream matters. Women believed men incapable of giving up power over them even though there had been notable changes in the rights of women. For instance, they were allowed to participate in the voting system, unlike what was the position before the Second World War. A few women had gone to school. However, women believed that their continuous discrimination in matters that were far more important was exploitation for the gain of men. Therefore, the period led to the development of the feminist conflict theory.<br /> In the wake of modernity, mainly in the 20th century, there has was an overhaul of the system that was seen in the 18th century (Sitton, 1996). The people are no longer divided into clear social classes. The social classes do exist because equality has not been attained in terms of wealth. There are those people who are rich and those who are poor. However, the lower class is not as exploited as was the case in the 18th centuries. Political institutions have become accommodative of the common man, and legal rules are made in the interest of the ordinary man. There has been the rise of labor unions that advocate the rights of workers. Even so, the social conflict theory is still applicable in some situations and varies in degree. There is a global and international conflict. The global entities that often exist control countries in what they should do or things in which they should engage. There have been arguments on the issue of sovereignty when it comes to forging of some rules. The conflict also relates to international economics where those countries that are not yet financially independent are controlled by those that have achieved financial freedom. States foster interactions between one another that are meant to give rise to good relationships. They lead to trade where those that have a higher bargaining power overlook the others that may not be very fortunate. Additionally, conflicts have existed in aspects of the interactions that exist in a modern society. The interactions are based on the individual will of the people as opposed to the collective. Class is still something that the individuals, who exercise the free will of their thoughts, exploit. There exists the conflict of individual freedoms and the collective responsibilities in the society. People do not participate in the things they are supposed to in the society because of their free will. They form interactions that are in the interest of their free will as opposed to what collective responsibility entails. Who they interact with, therefore, will be dependent upon what they want as individuals. In a way, social conflict is still active in the modern society, but has developed to incorporate the above. People have been given freedom through the laws that advocate the rights and liberties of the individual.<br /> Also, modernity brought the concept of deviance into the social conflict theory (Pankin, 1981). In this sense, it was witnessed that when it came to deviance and committal of crimes, the lower class was more associated with it as compared to the higher level in the society. The lower class is dealt with in a different way than the privileged. The scenario is applicable to both white and blue collar crimes. The punishment in the society is not the same with the different classes that apply it. Those who are economically stable, in addition, can be used to influence the hand of the law in any direction that they see fit. Money changes things in the way the legal rules are set forth, hence, brings a conflict. Social conflict theorists have argued that the law is left as a weapon as opposed to it being a shield</p> <h2>Strengths and weaknesses of the theoretical development</h2> <p>The theoretical evolution of the theory draws its strength from the fact that it uses the aspect of morality to justify itself. In all of its development, the social conflict theory had embraced the aspect of morality in its discussion. Hence, it has drawn the attention of many people because it preaches the immorality of exploitation. It preaches of the issues behind the immoral aspects of exploitation under pretentious habits by the advantageous groups. In doing so, it recognizes the fundamentals in which the society is made of and identifies with the plight of the minorities. It recognizes the injustice that was afforded to the people who could not change the laws or political atmosphere as society developed from the 18th century. The fact is that the theory is the only one that sought to exploit the injustices that occurred in the society. As it proceeded and developed more, the theory recognized the changes that the society had made towards a better governing and social system. It incorporates other factors that have affected the developed society. Because of such a comprehensive and factual representation of what happens in the society, it is a realistic representation of what needed to be changed. It involved the change in the traditional setup, and what was needed in the modern scenario.<br /> However, the theory heavily discounts humanitarianism acts that may aimed towards the goodness of the society (Eagly, 2004). It places any acts that are done by the advantageous group to people who are less fortunate as having an ulterior motive. In this theory, there is no day that the people who have influential positions will do things that substantially benefit the society as a whole (Izvercianu, 2009). The theory stipulates that the society is devoid of any goodness. In the modern aspect, when it comes to crime, the theory presents a situation where the laws completely fail to protect those from a lower class. The scenario may be a misrepresentation that is fuelled with unfounded discriminatory innuendo. The issue of discrimination is not new when it comes to crime committal and punishment. However, the law has evolved to protect criminals and they, too, get to be afforded a high amount of rights. At the same time, it could be notably true that the higher class in the society often escapes high degrees of punishment. However, it does not mean that the lower class is usually unfairly punished as a result. The laws have tried to foster a fair approach to the provision of justice through constitutional reviews.<br /> Empirical Research denotes the routine of acquiring new knowledge and skills not through construing, but through undeviating and unintended observation. That explains why the outcomes that are deduced from the empirical research would only be evaluated and considered through qualitative as well as quantitative approaches. In other words, it is a product that brings out outcomes through experimentation and observation resulting to sound understanding not forgetting to remark that the research results to s comprehensive case study. One of the major strengths of the methods denotes the integration of the research itself as well as the practice. Moreover, it does offer admiration to contextual differences something that enables the acquired knowledge to be built upon. Even though the method have the exceeding features, it is worth noting that the process would not be trustworthy in case the full cycle was not adhered to and they include observation, induction, deduction, testing, and finally evaluation. Any failure in any of the phases would result to unwanted outcomes that would lead to wrong observation.</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>The social conflict theory has been an important element in the bid to solve the never-ending problems that exist in the society. The problems emanate from the legal, social, economic and political aspects since they are all related (Deutsch, 2000). Even with the presence of some weaknesses, the theory is still a good representation of those things that affect the society and need reform. Because of the social interactions that occur with different people in the society, conflicts are bound to exist.</p> <h2>References</h2> <p>Azar, E. (1990). The management of protracted social conflict: Theory and cases. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Dartmouth;.<br /> Ballantine, J. H., & Spade, J. Z. (2008). Schools and society: A sociological approach to education. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press.<br /> Bartos, O., & Wehr, P. (2002). Using conflict theory. 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