Class Notes
Professor Henry Schissler
Chapter Eight – Part A


Social Institutions – organized patterns of beliefs and behaviors that are centered on the fulfillment of basic human needs

Functionalist Perspective

Five Major Functions of Social Institutions – tasks that a society or relatively permanent group must accomplish if it is to survive

(1) Replacing Personnel – accomplished through takeover of neighboring groups of people, normal sexual reproduction, immigration, acquisition of slaves; any group or society must replace “personnel” when they die, leave, or become incapacitated.

(2) Teaching New Recruits – group or society must encourage “recruits” to learn & accept its values and customs (through education, peer interaction, etc.); no group or society can survive it many of its members reject established values, behaviors, and responsibilities.

(3) Producing and Distributing Goods and Services – group or society must satisfy the needs to most members to some extent, or it will risk the possibility of discontent, and ultimately disorder; each society establishes a set of rules for allocation of financial & other resources.

(4) Preserving Order – group or society must preserve order and protect itself from attack; if not, the group risks extinction.

(5) Providing and Maintaining a Sense of Purpose – people must feel motivated to continue as members of a group or society in order to fulfill the previous four requirements; such motivation must be relatively consistent with opportunities for “achievement” or “success”.

Conflict Perspective

Social Institutions help to maintain the privileges of the most powerful individuals & groups within a society, while contributing to the powerlessness of others.

Social Institutions are inherently conservative; it has been difficult, for example, to implement educational reforms that promote equal opportunity (school desegregation, similarly equipped & staffed schools) for all students.




Social Institutions operate in gendered and racist environments. Inequality based on economic status, ethnicity, age, physical disability, and sexual orientation are also common.

Interactionist Perspective

Our social behavior is conditioned by the roles and statuses we accept, the groups to which we belong, and the institutions within which we function. Social behavior is conditioned within Social Institutions that are gendered and racist, and covertly promote various other types of inequality.


Core American Values

Values are collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable. Values do not tell which behaviors are appropriate, but they provide evaluative criteria. Values are the core of organized patterns of beliefs found in Social Institutions.

Ideal Culture refers to the values & standards of behavior that people in a society profess to hold.

Real Culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people actually follow. For example, “morality and humanitarianism” may conflict with “individual achievement and success.”

Some of the core American values are –
• Individualism (independence)
• Achievement and success (status)
• Activity and work (work ethic)
• Progress and material comfort
• Efficiency and practicality
• Equality and opportunity
• Morality and humanitarianism (good character)
• Freedom and liberty
• Science and technology

Individuals are socialized through such Social Institutions as family, education (the “hidden curriculum”), religion, media, and government, to believe in the purposefulness of these core values. Through this socialization, individuals also learn what beliefs and behaviors are considered “deviant” in society.




Government: Power and Authority

A cultural universal (common to all societies) is the exercise of power & authority. The struggle for power & authority typically involves politics. Sociologists are concerned with social interactions among individuals and groups and their impact on the larger political and economic order.

Power is the ability to exercise one’s will over others; it is at the heart of a political system.

Three basic sources of power within any political system are force, influence, and authority.


Force is the actual or threatened use of coercion to impose one’s will on others.

Influence refers to the exercise of power through a process of persuasion.

Authority refers to power that has been institutionalized and is recognized by the people over whom it is exercised. The term refers to those who hold legitimate power through elected or publicly acknowledged positions.

Max Weber identified three ideal types of authority –

Traditional Authority – legitimate power is conferred by custom & accepted practice; authority rests in custom, not in personal characteristics, technical competence, or even written law; authority is absolute when the ruler has the ability to determine laws and policies. (Royal families)

Legal-Rational Authority – power is made legitimate by law, by the written rules & regulations of a political system. (Democracies)

Charismatic Authority – power is made legitimate by a leader’s exceptional personal or emotional appeal to his or her followers; charisma lets a person lead or inspire without relying on set rules or traditions; charismatic authority is derived more from the beliefs of followers than from actual qualities of leaders; followers perceive a leader as having qualities setting him or her apart from others, and they give the leader unquestioned authority.

Often, charismatic leaders become well-known by breaking with established institutions & advocating dramatic changes in the social structure & economic system. At times, their strong hold over followers enables them to build protest movements that challenge dominant norms & values of a society. Examples are Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. Adolph Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, and Jim Jones are examples of charismatic authorities who advocated for and turned followers toward violence, destruction, and, in some cases, suicide.

Weber stressed that individual leaders and political systems often combine two or more of these forms. Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan are examples of U.S. Presidents with both legal-rational and charismatic authority.

Who Hold Power in the United States?

Elite Model of Power Relations – society is ruled by a small group of individuals who share a common set of political and economic interests.

The Power Elite (C. Wright Mills) – power rests in the hands of a limited number of individuals, both inside and outside government. They operate as a self-conscious, cohesive unit; they regularly interact with one another and have essentially the same political & economic interests. The Power Elite is not conspiratorial and not necessarily diabolical or ruthless.

A pyramid illustrates this power structure. At the top are the corporate rich (perhaps the most powerful), leaders of the executive branch of government, & heads of the military. Directly below are local opinion leaders, members of the legislative branch of government, and leaders of special-interest groups. At the bottom are the unorganized, exploited masses

Today, it appears that some legislative branch members hold as much power as executive branch members. Further, some Supreme Court Justices and others in the legislative branch appear to be power elite members (or supporters).

Many leaders of special-interest groups were members of either the legislative or executive branches of government. Their influence and power can, therefore, be substantial. Also, as special-interest group leaders, they might work for or represent corporate interests, and typically have access to large amounts of money targeted as donations to specific executive and legislative branch politicians as well as the political party power structure.

G. William Domhoff’s model (2001) of the power elite takes Mills’ general thesis and makes certain adjustments. He finds that the Power Elite is still largely White, male, and upper class. He stresses the role played both by elites of the corporate community and by leaders of policy-formation organizations such as chambers of commerce and labor unions.

In the electoral arena, two different coalitions exercise influence. A corporate-conservative coalition opposes a liberal-labor coalition. Both are well financed, ally with certain candidates, and promote specific agendas. With each election cycle, there are many new or evolving elements to these two overarching coalitions.



(Please refer to previous notes on the Social Institutions of family, religion, and education, presented as part of class discussions on the Agents of Socialization.)