F
or centuries, the dominant
institutions in Europe were
the Church and the ruling
class of monarchs and aristocrats.
It was not until the Renaissance
that the authority of the Church
was challenged by humanist ideas
and scientific discovery, and
republican democracy began to
threaten claims of a God-given,
inherited right to rule. The age
of Enlightenment thought further
weakened these institutions, and
in the 18th century the old order
was overturned with political
revolutions in the US and France,
and an Industrial Revolution
spreading from Britain.
Secularism and rationalism
A recognizably modern society
rapidly emerged, which was
shaped by the rational ideas of the
Enlightenment and the economic
demands of industry. The social
cohesion based on community
values and shared beliefs gave
way to new secular institutions,
and government of society was
transferred to representatives
of the people. Together with
this secularization came a
rationalization suited to the
increasingly material nature of
modern society. Industrialization,
and the capitalism that grew from
it, required a much greater degree
of administration, and the idea of
bureaucracy spread from the sphere
of commerce to government too.
The institutions of modern
society evolved from these
bureaucracies: financial and
business institutions, government
departments, hospitals, education,
the media, the police, armed forces,and so on. The new institutions
formed a prominent part of the
social structure of modern society,
and sociologists have sought
to identify the roles they play
in creating and maintaining
social order.
Bureaucracies, however, are
organized for efficiency and
consequently tend to follow a
hierarchical structure. As Robert
Michels pointed out, this leads to
their being ruled by a small elite, an
oligarchy, which, far from helping to
promote democratic government,
actively prevents it. As a result,
people feel as much under the
control of the new institutions
as they did under religious and
monarchical rule. Michel Foucault
later examined the nature of
the (often unnoticed) power of
institutions to shape society and252 INTRODUCTION
1897 1911 1949 1963
In Political Parties,
Robert Michels argues
that bureaucracies
render democratic
government
impossible to achieve.In Social Theory and
Social Structure, Robert
K. Merton proposes that
“anomie” is at the
root of deviant
behavior.In Outsiders, Howard
S. Becker suggests
that any behavior
can be considered
deviant if society
labels it as such.In Suicide, Émile Durkheim
introduces the idea of
“anomie” to account for
differing suicide rates,
revealing this personal act
as a social phenomenon.1844 1904–05 1930 S 1961
Max Weber explains
the process of
secularization and
rationalization of
modern society in The
Protestant Ethic and
the Spirit of Capitalism.Antonio Gramsci uses the
term “hegemony” to
explain how the views of
the dominant class
become seen by the rest
of society as “common
sense” and indisputable.In Asylums, Erving
Goffman describes
how “total
institutions”
reorder people’s
personalities and
identities.Karl Marx says religion
is “the sigh of the
oppressed creature... the
opium of the people” in his
essay “A Contribution to
the Critique of Hegel’s
Philosophy of Right.”