Critical Analysis of the Conflict Theory
There are three major theories: Structural Functionalism, Symbolic Interaction, and Conflict. These theories relate to the main aspects of life in a society: organized group membership, interaction, and conflict. Out of all three of these, conflict seems to be the most straight-forward. Every person has experienced conflict in life. The main focus of this theory is how power structures and power disparities impact people’s lives (The Catholic University of America, 2008). Conflict theory according to Crossman (2013) emphasizes the role of coercion and power in producing social order. This is derived from the works of Karl Marx, who saw society as fragmented into groups that compete for social and economic resources. According to Walsh (2012), Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) is the father of critical criminology; he is also associated with the ideas of socialism and communism. “The core of Marxism is the concept of class struggle: Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another. The oppressors in Marx’s time were the owners of the means of production (the bourgeoisie), and the oppressed were the workers (the proletariat). The bourgeoisie strives to keep the cost of labor at a minimum, but the proletariat strives to sell its labor at the highest possible price. These opposing goals are the major source of conflict in a capitalist society. The bourgeoisie enjoys the upper hand because capitalist societies have large armies of unemployed workers eager to secure work at any price, thus driving down the cost of labor. These economic and social arrangements – the material conditions of people’s lives – determine what they will know, believe, and value, and how they will behave.” To sum this up, Marx referred to these groups as the have’s (bourgeoisie), and the have not’s (proletariat). Conflict theory is in essence a complex system with imbalance, which
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