Foundations of Social Theory

This text proposes a unified conceptual structure that is capable of describing and quantifying both stability and change in social systems. This theory also provides a foundation for linking individual, organizational and societal behaviour.

Autorentext

James Coleman

Klappentext

Combining principles of individual rational choice with a sociological conception of collective action, James Coleman recasts social theory in a bold new way. The result is a landmark in sociological theory, capable of describing both stability and change in social systems.

This book provides for the first time a sound theoretical foundation for linking the behavior of individuals to organizational behavior and then to society as a whole. The power of the theory is especially apparent when Coleman analyzes corporate actors, such as large corporations and trade unions. He examines the creation of these institutions, collective decision making, and the processes through which authority is revoked in revolts and revolutions.

Coleman discusses the problems of holding institutions responsible for their actions as well as their incompatibility with the family. He also provides a simple mathematical analysis corresponding to and carrying further the verbal formulations of the theory. Finally, he generates research techniques that will permit quantitative testing of the theory.

From a simple, unified conceptual structure Coleman derives, through elegant chains of reasoning, an encompassing theory of society. It promises to be the most important contribution to social theory since the publication of Talcott Parsons' Structure of Social Action in 1936.

Zusammenfassung
Arguably the most important contribution to social theory in fifty years, James Coleman's Foundations erects a unified conceptual structure, capable of describing and quantifying both stability and change in social systems. Elegantly reasoned, this rich theory also provides a foundation for linking individual, organizational, and societal behavior.

Inhalt
Preface 1. Metatheory: Explanation in Social Science Explanation of the Behavior of Social Systems Components of the Theory Conceptions of the Relations between Micro and Macro Levels Part I / Elementary Actions and Relations 2. Actors and Resources, Interest and Control The Elements Structures of Action Social Exchange Simple and Complex Relations 3. Rights to Act What Are Rights? How the Free-Rider Problem Is Reduced for Rights How Does New Information Bring About a Change in the Allocation of Rights? How Does a Right Change Hands? Who Are the Relevant Others? How Are Rights Partitioned, and How Might They Be? 4. Authority Relations The Right to Control One's Own Actions Vesting of Authority Conjoint and Disjoint Authority Relations Transfer of One Right or Two: Simple and Complex Authority Relations Limitations on Authority Slavery Authority without Intentional Exercise 5. Relations of Trust The Placement of Trust Actions of the Trustee Multiple Trustors and Public-Goods Problems Part II / Structures of Action 6. Systems of Social Exchange What Is Money? Media of Exchange in Social and Political Systems Exchanges within Systems 7. From Authority Relations to Authority Systems The Law of Agency Sympathy and Identification: Affine Agents Simple and Complex Authority Structures The Internal Morality of an Authority System 8. Systems of Trust and Their Dynamic Properties Mutual Trust Intermediaries in Trust Third-Party Trust Large Systems Involving Trust 9. Collective Behavior General Properties of Collective Behavior Escape Panics Bank and Stock Market Panics Acquisitive Crazes Contagious Beliefs Hostile and Expressive Crowds Fads and Fashions Influence Processes in Purchasing Decisions, Voting, and Public Opinion Specific Predictions about Collective Behavior 10. The Demand for Effective Norms Examples of Norms and Sanctions Distinctions among Norms The First Condition: Externalities of Actions and the Demand for a Norm What Constitutes Social Efficiency? Systems of Norms 11. The Realization of Effective Norms An Action-Rights Bank Social Relationships in Support of Sanctions Free Riding and Zeal Heroic versus Incremental Sanctioning How Are Sanctions Applied in Society? Emergence of Norms about Voting Internalization of Norms 12. Social Capital Human Capital and Social Capital Forms of Social Capital Relative Quantities of Social Capital The Public-Good Aspect of Social Capital The Creation, Maintenance, and Destruction of Social Capital Part III / Corporate Action 13. Constitutions and the Construction of Corporate Actors Norms and Constitutions Positive Social Theory Change in a Disjoint Constitution: American High Schools An Optimal Constitution Who Are the Elementary Actors? 14. The Problem of Social Choice Partitioning of Rights to Indivisible Goods Constitutional Issues in Partitioning Rights to Control Corporate Actions Intellectual Puzzles concerning Social Choice Emergent Processes and Institutions for Social Choice Ethical Theory: How to Determine the Right Action Executive Decision Making Community Decision Making and Conflict Characteristics of Noninstitutionalized Social Choice 15. From Individual Choice to Social Choice The Problem of Independence from irrelevant Alternatives Tournaments as Institutions for Social Choice Multi-Stage versus Single-Stage Processes for Social Choice The Nature of Rights in Social Choice 16. The Corporate Actor as a System of Action Weberian Bureaucracy in Theory and Practice The Format Organization as a Specification of Transactions Modes of Maintaining Viability in Formal Organizations Explicit and Implicit Constitutions Structures That Link Interest and Control General Principles for Optimizing the Corporate Actor's Internal Structure The Changing Conception of the Corporation 17. Rights and Corporate Actors Allocation of Corporate Rights and the Public-Goods Problem 451 Exercise and Exchange of Rights The Drift of Power toward Actors Having Usage Rights Withdrawal of Usage Rights through Voice and Exit 18. Revoking Authority Theories of Revolution Comparative Macrosoc