Although quite different, both Functionalism and Marxism have their similarities. They
also have their good and bad aspects, and ways in which each theory dysfunctions.
Functionalism is the study of society as a functioning system including interdependent
institutions or patterned relations that are steady overtime, and that enact specialized functions
for the whole. The main focus is on how direction is kept between parts of society. Any given
pattern of relations or structures within society is interpreted by reference to the results or
functions that such patterns have for them majority. It is a essential assumption within the
functionalist perspective is that participation in social systems is voluntary. When a sociologist
uses a functionalist perspective, they create attention to the long-term familiar and predictable
character of large-scale social organization, stopping only catastrophic events. “To get a sense of
how a sociologist would analyse society using a functionalist perspective, think about how
biologists study an animal’s body”. The main assumption is that social life can most usefully be
understood by thinking in general terms about society as a relatively self-contained and self-
maintaining method of interrelated parts. Functionalist societies lean towards dynamic
equilibrium. Dynamic equilibrium is “the maintenance of balance and order between elements of
a society by systematically adjusting for change in one element by complementary changes in
other related elements”. Societies are in need of some systematic means of giving critical
functions among capable members and ensuring that such worth is performed regularly.
Individual societies can be seen as subsystems working within an “increasingly interconnected
global system of transnational economic, legal institutions, and politics”. The functionalist theory
also brings notice to systemic dys…
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