Gumplowicz, Ludwig (1838–1909)

Ludwig Gumplowicz was born in Krakow, Poland. He became professor of administrative and public law in 1882 at the University of Graz in Austria and was the first author to use the word sociology in the German language. As a founder of the discipline, Gumplowicz conceived of sociology in a rigorously deterministic and materialistic manner. It was on the borderline of human etiology, a science that investigates natural laws in the field of social relations and identifies the underlying social processes in conflicts between heterogeneous groups. These generate social change (a cyclic model of transformation), although not in the sense of progress.

The purpose of conflict between groups that are internally homogeneous, with solidarity and their own sets of morals, is that of domination and exploitation. This generates political organization (the state) whose aim is to enable the victorious group or groups to dominate the vanquished groups and exploit them peacefully. As for heterogeneous outsiders, there is hostility toward them.

Law is the product of the state and its rules, the result of negotiation among the various groups within the political organization, and constitutes the borderline between the groups' reciprocal powers. This enables the relationship of domination, which constitutes the condition and premise for the very existence of the state and for its officials to enforce the law peacefully. In this way, the heteronymous rules of law solve the conflicts among the morals specific to each of the groups that come together to make up the state. This produces new “state morals,” which, by establishing apparently independent rules, enable social bonds to be forged between heterogeneous groups.

Nevertheless, the social integration that law generates based on inequality exists in a precarious balance. The state cannot maintain social integration forever, and imbalances will eventually trigger new processes of conflict. In fact, the legal rules whose claim is to enshrine the principles of universality and reciprocity may foster conflict. This enables dominated groups to use law as an ideology for conducting their social struggle against dominant groups. According to Gumplowicz, the process of conflict among groups within the state, and between the state and external groups, is continuously renewed. The scarcity of resources, the existence of heterogeneity among groups, each with its own specific culture and morals, results in social history, including legal history.

Gumplowicz also made a significant contribution to the foundation of social psychology, from a decidedly anti-individualistic standpoint. Thus, the individual does not think; rather, the group in him is what thinks.