Social Breakdown

[Page 610]Social breakdown is a term describing the decline (both long- and short-term) of the cultural and civil institutions of a society or civilization; if the breakdown is not slowed or stopped, complete social collapse may ensue. There is no one explanation for this phenomenon. In some circumstances, there may be a single reason, but in most, many individual factors work together. Possible political and economic causes include the following:

• Economic disparities, inequalities, and impoverishment. This problem is common to most cultures, but its relative influence depends upon the culture in question. For instance, income disparity is not as important in the West as it is in certain African, South American, and Asian countries. Throughout the former, social welfare programs exist to prevent social breakdown; in the latter, there is no safety net protecting the people from poverty.
• Little hope for socioeconomic growth or improvement. When individuals feel that, regardless of their effort, the future is dismal in terms of attaining a minimal level of socioeconomic stability, they are more likely to engage in activities that help cause social breakdown. For instance, an inner-city youths drops out of high school due to the belief that their location, race, education, or other factors only permit them to work for minimum wage at fast-food restaurants; they begin selling drugs instead, believing there is no other means to achieve a financially independent life.
• A high rate of unemployment. This has been problematic for all countries at some point in their past. Arguably, the period of greatest destitution in American history occurred in the 1930s during the Great Depression, an era when at its worst one in five Americans were out of work.
• Lack of quality educational facilities.
• Urban drift and the resultant growth of shantytowns in the urban areas. These reached their peak of prevalence in the West during the Industrial Revolution, but are still common throughout Africa and parts of Asia.
• Increasing crime rates and lawlessness. The more crime a country has, the higher the taxes the populace incurs as the government must spend more money on law enforcement and the construction of jails and penitentiaries. This is not inherently destabilizing unless crime is rampant throughout all sectors of society. In scenarios like this, it is possible that government leaders have a vested interest in keeping criminals out of jail, because the two are often partnered, as they are in the Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe.
• The widespread prevalence of alcohol and substance abuse. These are problems particularly acute in the United States. While alcohol is legal and relatively inexpensive to purchase, its abuse causes untold numbers of deaths each year due to alcohol-related driving accidents, as well as causing emotional, financial, marital, and educational problems. Certain drugs, like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, are illegal; thus, using the substance means one must necessarily break the law. If the government's laws regarding drug use are strict, many citizens will likely be incarcerated for the use, not the selling, of the substance. In addition, because the substance is illegal, sales will be highly profitable (if enough people desire the substance, as is the case for cocaine and heroin). Regardless of societal repercussions concerning illicit drugs, once the market is established, it is hard to shut down; hence, it leads to a breakdown of social mores and norms.
• Concurrent use of violence to ameliorate differences, thus venting feelings of irritation, deprivation, defenselessness, and resentment. In essence, people use their fists or guns to settle their problems instead of using rationality.

Quite often, there is an environmental component to social breakdown, causing a general impoverishment for the citizens of many countries. Several potential factors

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