THE BASICS OF CONFLICT THEORY
(From
Randall Collins, Conflict Sociology. New York:Academic Press, 1974,
pp.56-61.
The
level of interpersonal interaction is all-inclusive; by thesame token, it is
highly abstract. To reduce its myriad complexitiesto causal order requires
theory on another level of analysis. Themost fruitful tradition of explanatory
theory is the conflicttradition, running from Machiavelli and Hobbes to Marx
and Weber. Ifwe abstract out its main causal propositions from extraneouspolitical
and philosophical doctrines, it looks like the following.
Machiavelli
and Hobbes initiated the basic stance of cynicalrealism about human society.
Individuals' behavior is explained interms of their self-interests in a
material world of threat andviolence. Social order is seen as being founded on
organizedcoercion. There is an ideological realm of belief (religion, law),and
an underlying world of struggles over power; ideas and morals arenot prior to
interaction but are socially created, and serve theinterests of parties to the
conflict.
Marx
added more specific determinants of the lines of divisionamong conflicting
interests, and indicated the material conditionsthat mobilize particular
interests into action and that make itpossible for them to articulate their
ideas. He also added a theoryof economic evolution which turns the wheels of
this system toward adesired political outcome; but that is a part of Marx's
work thatlies largely outside his contributions to conflict sociology, andhence
will receive no attention here. Put schematically, Marx'ssociology states:
