Institutions and Ideas in Social Change.

This article examines the major conflicting theories of social institutions and analyzes the function of ideational factors in social change. According to one way of thinking, social institutions are the basic structural sub-divisions of society; insofar as their functioning is concerned, they are regarded as instrumental in character. The other way of thinking emphasizes the functional nature of institutions and tends to regard them as irrational and inhibitory. A large group of social scientists, including the cultural relativists, adheres to the former way of thinking. The structural concept of institutions is the basis of an instrumental theory of institutions. In this way of thinking, every operative and controlling activity of a given society takes place through institutions ranging from those which satisfy vital and permanent needs to those relatively superficial and transitory. The basic differences regarding the concept and theory of institutions lead to a sharp cleavage in contemporary cultural analysis. The traditional sociological concept of institutions as structural entities, with technology being ignored or subsumed under the heading of social institutions, renders impossible a distinction between the functionally inhibitory force of institutions and the functionally creative force of technology. Institutions are then analyzed in sociological theory as instrumental devices serving the more general and basic needs or interests of a society.