Question

Interest groups will fight to protect and extend existing social arrangements when they are viewed as beneficial to their members

Answer 1

How much do individuals impact the world, and how much does the world impactindividuals?Structuralism: Social structures primarily determine our individual lives andbehavior. Believe that individuals have little agency: capacity to make free choicesand exert their own wills. While structure is connected with constraints, agency isconnected with freedom. While agency places power in the hands of the individual,structure places power in the hands of the larger society.Karl Marx: Most important social structure is the economy and individual behaviorwas largely determined by one’s place within the economic structure.VS Some settings race may be more important an influence than class: W. E. B DuBois: People inhabit multiple roles and are located in different hierarchies.Principle way reconcile these two positions is by considering structures as not justconstraints on action buy also things that enable action. Ex- Workplace Hierarchies-place limits on what people can do, also give individuals a sense of identity fromtheir behavior stems.Second aspect of debate: how and why change happens in society. Sociologists whoplace too heavy an emphasis on the power of structure are criticized for beingunable to account for how change happens. Social scientists who place too have anemphasis on individual agency and the power of free will are criticized for beingunable to account for fact that most things tend to stay the same or change slowly:Basic structure of groups like families, hierarchies and inequalities tend to persistover generations.