Abstract
This excerpt by the British sociologist Percy Cohen is taken from his book ‘Modern Social Theory’, first published in 1968. Basically, Cohen says that there is no single satisfactory theory of social order. He examines four types of theory which have been put forward by sociological theorists, and finally he concludes that ‘All social order rests on a combination of coercion, interest and values.’
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Notes
Talcott Parsons, The Structure of Social Action ( Free Press of Glencoe, Illinois, 1949 ).
E.g. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan ed. Michael Oakeshott (Oxford, 1946) esp. pp. 107–8.
E.g. John Middleton and David Tate (eds), Tribes without Rulers (London, 1958 ).
Friedrich A. Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order (London, 1949) 6–1
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© 1970 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Cohen, P. (1970). Stability and Function in Society. In: Understanding Society. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15392-3_29
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15392-3_29
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