Social Conflict

Sources and Functions of Social Conflict

Although social scientists agree on the social nature of conflict, they differ on its source. Karl Marx was among the first modern social scientists who examined its causes, and according to him, social inequality, accompanied by social institutions that reinforce disproportionate distribution of resources, is the foun-tainhead of all conflicts. To the extent that processes reproducing social stratification are intact, social conflict remains steady and pervasive. However, conflicts between contending classes open only at critical historical moments. Insofar as superordinate groups do not exhaust their rulership role, social conflicts remain hidden until a legitimization crisis ensues. Such a crisis arises when a subordinate class turns itself from a “class-in-itself” into a “class-for-itself”; that is, a class aware of its interests that works toward attaining the historical mission of constructing an alternative social order.

Although not fully subscribing to Marx's view, Max Weber, like his predecessor, was deeply interested in the social causes of conflict. Going beyond Marx's economic theory of conflict, Weber added the dimensions of political and cultural factors to an understanding of social conflict, thereby suggesting a tripartite view of social stratification. From his perspective, social conflict arises when there is “status consistency.” Whereas status inconsistency refers to a condition wherein groups fare differentially in the multiple areas of social organization, thereby forestalling the feelings of powerlessness, status consistency is a condition in which certain groups have disproportionate power, wealth, and prestige simultaneously. Conflict reaches a critical stage when some members—denied access to the cultural, political, and economic capitals of their societies—become indignant at the existing system of social arrangements. [Page 865]However, Weber did not, like Marx, assume that acute conflicts ultimately lead to a perfect social order. Societies are full of historical accidents that detract a linear development of society from unfolding.

By synthesizing these arguments, Ralf Dahrendorf provided an alternative approach that addressed the contemporary sources of social conflict. In his dialectical conflict perspective, Dahrendorf assumed that the grounds for conflict reside in what he called “imperatively coordinated associations” (ICAs), organizations within which two antithetical roles with an unequal power differential exist.

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