Conflict Theory and Marxism

Conflict Theory and its Description

Conflict theory can be considered as the basis for Marxism and communism that highlight and showcases the inequalities that exist in societies. The unavoidably lead to conflict between groups or classes of people and this conflicts ends with revolution and overthrow of the more privileged group of the two. Conflict theory stresses the role of force and power in producing social order. Moreover, the theory is concentrate on how the resource, power and inequality have been distributed. Also it looks at the social life as a completion between the different classes or parties, which ends and result in changes in the society. In addition, the theory showcases society that is split into groups and is competing

Wright Mills (1916 -1962)

C. Wright Mills is referred to as the founder of the modern conflict theory and believes that social structure are created due to the conflicts between people with different interests. People in a society are impacted by the formation of social structures and these results in differential power between the elite and the others (The Conflict Perspective, 2012).

Adding on, Mills was the most influential social theorists and critics in America in the 20th century. He was born in Waco, Texas in 1916 on August 28th, his father was an insurance agent and his mother was a homemaker. As he gained a PhD for his thesis A Sociological Account of Pragmatism in 1942 from the University of Wisconsin, he was significant of intellectual sociology and believed that all sociologists should use their information to promote social change. Lastly he died when he was 45 due to heart disease (C. Wright Mills, 2014).

Conflict Theory’s strengths and

Assumptions can be made on the basis of level of subordination of working class and the lower class which do not hold up this history. This theory also ignores the micro level interactions with the individuals. Besides the main concept of the theory is to make changes in the social structure even if that leads to revolution and neglecting the stability of the society.

The greatest weakness of conflict theory is its connection with socialism and statism. For example in a school conflict the eventual vision is to see a society where all are freely cooperating in terms of production for social goods. However this assumes that all harmful social elements in the populace are based on class rule and its connection. It also assumes that human nature that is generally good is corrupted due to civilization in various forms. Therefore once domination is excluded people will begin to cooperate. In addition this can be considered as a weak link in the school conflict (Johnson, 2015). Another weak point to be highlighted is that conflict theory overlooks stabilities of societies. As societies are in constant change of which some of the changes are minor, many of the elements in societies are stable over a period of