CONFLICT THEORY

RALF DAHRENDORF
RALF DAHRENDORF (1929)

 Born in Hamburg, Germany

 Father was a Social Democratic politician and a member of the German
Parliament.
 Opposed the Nazi regime and was sent to a concentration camp but
escaped.
 Actively participating in political groups that fight injustice.
 In 1952 he earned his first doctorate in philosophy and then later earned his
doctorate in sociology from the London School of Economics
 Widely respected in both Europe and North America.
 made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
 granted a life peerage and was named Baron Dahrendorf of Clare Market in
the City of Westminster.
 Major works
Class and class conflict in Industrial Society (1959)
Essays in the theory of society (1967)
RALF DAHRENDORF
 Sociological theories can be divided into two parts:
 Concentrate on issues of consensus
 Concentrate on issues of conflict
 There cannot be issues of conflict unless some consensus has already
been established
 Disagreed with Marx about economic forces being the sole
determinant of conflict; instead he thought unequal distribution of
political power & authority was a major contributor to conflict.
 Conflict Theory:
 Believe that social order is maintained through coercion by those at
the top of the social hierarchy.
 Tension is a constant in society and radical social change is very likely
at any point in any given society.
RALF DAHRENDORF & CONFLICT THEORY

 The main features of society are domination, conflict and coercion.

 Social structure is based on the authority of some groups over others,
bosses over employees, officers over listed men and so on.
 Each of these groups has a set of common interests which are different
from those of the other groups.
 When people become aware of their common interests, they may
organize into a social class. It may be a trade union or a lobby.
Class conflicts become more intense when
 (a) a few people have almost all the authority and the rest have almost
none;
 (b) there is no opportunity for those without authority to acquire it; and
 (c) people are free to form political groups
RALF DAHRENDORF

 Main source of conflict is Authority: struggle arises between those who

have authority and those who do not.
 For Dahrendorf, the distribution of authority was a key to understanding
social conflict. Authority is located not within people but within various
positions.
 Authority is created by the expectation of certain types of action
associated with particular positions, including subordination of others
and subordination to others.
 Various positions of authority exist within associations. Authority
generates conflicting groups.
 The conflict between these groups pervades their interaction, with the
result that authority is often challenged and sought after.
RALF DAHRENDORF

Power Authority

Individuals Social position or roles

RALF DAHRENDORF

Authority
(source of class
formation)

Super ordinate Subordinate

(exercises authority) (obeys authority)

Relationship of
authority
(source of class conflict)
RALF DAHRENDORF

 Authority resides in ICA’s i.e. imperatively coordinated

associations.
 ICA’s involve individuals in different positions & each
association has individuals who are either super ordinate or
subordinate.
 They keep changing with different associations.
 Super-ordinate in one & sub-ordinate in another; SPO try to
maintain the status quo & the SBO try to change it.
RALF DAHRENDORF

 Where there are authority relations, the super-ordinate is

socially expected to control, by orders and commands,
warnings and prohibitions, the behaviour of the subordinates.
People in a position of authority are expected to control
subordination.
 In turn, the subordinates try to challenge that authority or
seek to gain it.
 This becomes the source of conflict in ICA’s or even the
social structure.
RALF DAHRENDORF & CONFLICT THEORY

 Within ICA’s or social structures, there exist 3 groups.

Quasi groups: Individuals with identical role interests. Same
position & role but no collective consciousness.
Interest groups: these groups have a structure, organisation,
personnel & goal.
Conflict groups: SPO & SBO.

Manifest & Latent interests within these groups in ICA’s.