Toward a Theory of Social Conflict Ralf Dahrendorf The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 2, No. 2. (Jun., 1958), pp. 170-183. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0027%28195806%292%3A2%3C170%3ATATOSC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The Journal of Conflict Resolution is currently published by Sage Publications, Inc.. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/sage.html. 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For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Fri Jul 13 13:50:49 2007 Toward a theory of social conflict1 RALF DAHRENDORF Akademie fiir Gemeinwirtschaft, Hamburg, Germ, sons in 1937 established a certain conver- After an interval of almost fifty years, a gence in the sociological theories of Alfrecl theme has reappeared in sociology which hfarshall, fimile Durkheim, Vilfredo Pareto, has determined the origin of that discipline and Max Weher,* he no longer had in mind more than any other subject area. Fronl an analysi~of social conflict; his was an at- Mzrx and Cointe to Simmel and Sorel, social tempt to solve the problem of integration conflict, especially revolutions, was one of of so-called "social systems" by an organon the central themes in social research. The of interrelated categories. The new question same is true of many early Anglo-Saxon was now "What holds societies together?"- sociologists (although in their work the no longer "What drives them on?" The in- problem of revolution has been character- fluence of the Parsonian posing of the ques- istically somewhat neglected), for ex?mple, tion on the more recent sociology (and by the Webbs in England, Surnner in the no means only on American sociology) can United States. However, when Talcott Par- be hardly overrated. Thus it is possible that the revival of the study of social conflict in ----..---....------------.....------...--~~.~.~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 This paper was translated by Anatol Rapa- the last decades appears to many not so port, Mental Health Research Unit, University much a continuation of traditional research of hlichigan. paths as a new thematic discovery-an in- The following presentation is an attempt to stance of dialectic irony in the development depict in a systematic form ths fundamental of science. ideas of nly book Soziale Klossen uncl Klassen- confilkt it1 der inclustriellen Gesellschaft (Stutt- At this time, approaches toward a ~77s- grrt, 1957). Iiowever, the presentation departs tematic study of social conflict are still rela- significantly in its organization and thematic tively isolated, compared with the innumer- scope from that given in my book: ( 1) whereas able worlcs on social stratification or on the book binds together theoretical consider- st~uctureand fuilction of specific institutions, ations and empirical analysis, the present expo- sition is essentially limited to the theoretical as- organizations, and societies. Still the thesis pects; (2) whereas in the book I have developed of a revival of the study of social conflict the tlleoretical orientations in a critical dialogue can be justified with regard to the works with other authors, particularly with Marx, the of Aion, Philip, Brinton, Kerr, Coser, Brink- prescrltation in the following exposition is sys- mann, Geiger, Gluckmann, and others,"~ tematic. It need hardly be elaborated that n~uch of what is expressly developed in the book could (New York, be only formally treated here and often with Wf. Structure of Social Action dogmatic brevity. Nevertheless, it may be noted 1937; 2d ed., Glencoe, 1949). tllat the present exposition, especially in the "aymond Aron, "Social Structure and the first and fourth sections, contains in certain re- Kuling Class," in Class Status and Power, ed. spects formulations beyond the scope of the fieinhard Bendix and Seymour 'fartin Lipset book. ( London, 1954); Andre Philip, Le Socialisme CONFLICT RESOLUTION VOLUME 11 NUMBER 2 TOWARD A THEORY OF SOCIAL CONFLICT 171 well as an attempt to determine a systematic attention for the moment-for reasons which locus and a specific framework for a theory will presentl;~be given-to endogenous con- of conflict in sociological analysis. flicts. Then further subdivisions are directly perceived: slaves versus freemen in Rome, TYPES AND VARIETIES OF Negroes versus whites in the United States, SOCIAL CONFLICT Protestants versus Catholics in the Nether- To begin with a commonplace observa- lands, Flemings versus Walloons in Belgium, tion: The problem of conflict is no less coin- Conservatives versus Laborites in England, plex than thzt of integriition of societies. We u!licns versus employers in many countries. now know that the attempt to reduce all All these are opposing groups in well-knovrm actually occurring conflicts among social conflicts. Perhaps each of these examples groups to a common principle, say that of does not fall into a separate category; but classes, is sterile. It leads either to empty certainly they cannot all be subsumed under gencralizatic~is (such as "Every society ex- a single type of social conflict. Whatever perie:lces social conflicts") or to empirically criterion one chooses for classification-for unjustifiable oversimplfications (such as exnniple, the objects of contention, the "The history of all societies so far has been structural origin of the conflictiug groups, a history of class struggles"). It seems ad- the forms of conflict-several distinct types visable, first, to sort out and to classify the result. problems which are conceived under the general heading of "social conflict." Even THE LIMITS AND GOALS OF A THEORY a superficial reflection leads to the distinc- OF SOCIAL CONFLICT tion of a series of types. An ideal sociology cannot, in principle, There are wars, and there are conflicts exclude any of these categories and types zrnong political parties-evidently two dif- of cor~fiictfrom analysis. Nevertheless, the ferent kinds of struggle. LVith regnrd to a types mentioned do not all have the same given society, A, one could say there are i~nporbancefor sociological analysis. A brief exogenozrs conflicts brought upon or into A recollection of the intent of a sociological from the outside, and there arc enclogenous theory of conflict reveals that the contribu- conflicts generated within A. Of these two tion of sociology to the understailding of categories, which, at least analytically, can conflict (as \\-ell as the contribution of con- be re1:itively precisely distinguished, there flict to the social process) is in specific in- are agai~lseveral types. Let us confine our stances grcater in solne cases than in others. The intent of a sociological theory of con- trcdli (Paris, 1957); Crane Brinton, Tl~eAnatomy flict is to overcome the predo~ninatingly of Rccolution (2d ed.; New York, 1952); Clark nrbitr:.ry nature of unexplained historical Kerr, ''Ind~lstrial Collflict and Its hlediatiotl," events by deriving these events froin social Anz~riconJo~~TI~(I/of Sciciology, Vol. XL, No. 3 structu;.al elements-in other words, to ex- ( No\ ember, 1054) ; Lewis Coscr, Tl~eFunctions of Social Corlflict ( London, 1956 ), and "Social pl.iiil certain processes by prognostic co:l- ConYict and Social Cilatlge," British Journal of nections. Certainly it is important to describe Si:c;olog!l, i70i.1'111, No. 3 (September, 1957); the cdilflict bet\i,ec,n workers and einplo?,ers C:irl Ijri~ikm,lnn,Soziologische Tlceorie der Re~o- purely as such; but it is more imporlunt to llltioli (Tihingcn, 1948); Theodor Geiger, Klas- p:.oduce a proof that s~cha conflict is b'lsed se;~gcsclls~,hcijtill. Sci'cnteI~tie~el(Koln-Hagen, 1949); hfvlax Gluckmann, Cu.~tomaizd Conflict in oil c?:.tain social structural arrangements Africa (London, 1957). and hence is bound to arise xvherever such RALF DAHRENDORF structural arrangements are given. Thus it is ered from the point of view of their struc- the task of sociology to derive conflicts from tural significance, fall into two groups. On specific social structures and not to relegate the one hand, they point to conflicts which these coilflicts to psychological variables arise only in specific societies on the basis of ("aggressiveness") or to descriptive-his- special historical conditions (Negroes or torical ones (the influx of Negroes into the whites in the United States, Protestants ver- United States) or to chance. sus Catholics in the Netherlands; Flemings In the sense of strict sociological analysis, versus Walloons in Belgium); on the other conflicts can be considered explained if they hand, however, there are conflicts which can be shown to arise from the structure of can be understood as expressions of general social positions indepcvidently of the orien- structural features of societies, or of societies tation of populations and of historical [lei ex in the same stage of development (Con- nlacl~ina.This is necessarily a very abstract servatives versus Laborites in England; formulation; instead of elaborating it, it may unioiis versus employers' associations) .Wer- be advisable to illustrate its meaning by the tainly in both cases an analysis leading to following treatment of a form of social con- generalization is possible: a theory of minor- flict.