Value Consensus Is the Key to Understanding Social Order in the View of Functionalist.

386 Words2 Pages
Order and predictability are important if society is to exist. Without mutual understanding, social encounters would be chaotic and demoralizing. Functionalists believe that without collective conscience it is impossible to achieve social and social order is crucial to making sure that the society runs smoothly. Talcott Parson believes that social order is achieved through the existence of shared value system called the value consensus whereby. A culture is a set of norms, values, beliefs and goals shared by the members of society, whereby value consensus is the glue that holds the society together. Durkheim is also supporting this basis of idea when he states that that a greater level of happiness and progress in the society can be achieved if people work together rather than competing with each other like animals in a war of all against scarce resources. In his work, he also stated that humans have unlimited desires and there has to be a basic agreement on values. The basic function of consensus is to make social order possible by integrating individuals into social system and direct them to meet the system’s need. Everybody has to internalize their roles and the social order depends on how people play their own roles. For instance, in 1957, Neale conducted a study on Hindu’s caste system. He found that the caste system is governed by the exchanged of services and the majority of Hindu believers do not protestthe caste hierarchy because it is believed that if one carries their role well in this life, they will be rewarded by being born into a higher caste in the next reincarnation. From Neale’s observation, Klass (1993) proposes that the caste system is the solutions to the problems in Hindu society. The features help distinct boundaries thus monopolizes power. This is further supported by by Durkheim where he believes that the division of labor (caste
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