Institutions: Meaning, Characteristics, Types, Functions
The term institution like many other sociological terms, has been given different meanings. The term is widely used to describe practices that are regularly and continuously repeated, are sanctioned and maintained by social norms and have a major significance in the social structure. Like role, the term refers to established patterns of behaviour but institution is regarded as a higher-order, more general unit that incorporates a plurality of roles. Thus a school, as a social institution, embraces pupil roles, teacher roles and managerial roles.
A social institution is a complex. It is an
integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic
social value. Sociologists often reserve the term 'institution' to describe
normative systems that operate in five basic areas which may be designated as
the primary institutions:
(a) in determining kinship;
(b) in providing for the legitimate use of
power;
(c) in regulating the distribution of goods and
services;
(d) in transmitting knowledge from one
generation to the next;
(e) in regulating our relations to the
supernatural.
As concepts, these five basic institutions are
called family, government, economy, education and religion.
DEFINITION OF AN INSTITUTION
According to Sumner and Keller, who contributed the most clearest explanation of the term,
an institution is a vital interest or activity which is surrounded by a cluster
of mores and folkways. Sumner conceived of the "Institution” not only of a
concept, idea or interest, but of a structure as well. By structure he meant an
apparatus or a group of functionaries.
Lester F. Ward regarded
"an institution as the means for the control and utilization of the social
energy".
E.A. Ross considered
it a "grouping or relation that is sanctioned by society".
L.T. Hobhouse described
it as “the whole or any part of the established and recognized apparatus of
social life.”
Joyce 0. Hertzler defines the institution as a "fabric of fairly definite
and generally sanctioned relations between individuals of a group in respect to
one another.”
E.C. Hayes looks
upon institutions as "sets of activities which a society adopts as its
deliberately accepted method of attaining a deliberately approved end.”
C.A. Ellwood "The
habitual ways of living together which have been sanctioned, systematised and
established by the authority of communities” and he defined them as
"social habits which are systematized”.
Robert M. MacIver regarded them as "established forms or conditions of
procedure characteristic of group activity."
All told, institutions are being viewed as the
major order units of societies. They are envisaged as forming mutual sustaining
wholes.
Origin And Classification Of Institutions
As in the case of the mores out of which they
arise, institutions cannot be traced to their very beginnings because by the
time they have become definitely established, their origins are lost in the
remote past. By means of careful inference, however, it is possible to
determine the probable genesis of the basic social institutions.
Sociologists agree that institutions arise and
persist because of a definite felt need of the members of a society. The need
is not equally pressing in every case, but it must be present if an institution
is to arise and develop. The family, for instance, is an institution which is
tied up with the very survival of the human species, whereas an institution
such as the theatre does not approach it in importance. Nevertheless, the
latter certainly arose in response to a definite need for recreation.
While, there is essential agreement on the
general origin of institutions, sociologists have differed about the specific
motivating forces. Thus, Sumner and Keller maintained that institutions come
into existence to satisfy vital 'interests of man; Ward believed that
they arise because of a “social demand," or "social necessity”; and
Bernard concluded that they originate to meet instinctive needs. Lewis H.
Morgan, one of the American pioneer students of human society, ascribed the
basis of every institution to what he called a "perpetual want.” Other
social scientists have propounded comparable views to explain the origin of
institutions.
NEEDS AS THE BASIS OF INSTITUTIONS
Attempts have been made to classify the
interests or needs which are responsible for the rise of institutions and which
are as follows:
1. Emotional Needs: Sumner and Keller have given us a succinct and inclusive
classification. According to them the chief interests that have given rise to
institutions are hunger, love, vanity, and fear, which correspond to the
impulses of self-preservation, of sex, of self-gratification, and the dread of
the supernatural. These socializing forces have operated in all human beings,
and as a result institutions arose to satisfy as well as to regulate and
control them.
2. Economic Needs : The institutions that developed as an outgrowth of these
interests are the economic and governmental systems (concerned
with the food supply, property, class, and law system).
3. The Familial Needs : The family concerned with courtship, marriage and divorce,
training of the young and treatment of the aged.
4. Aesthetic and Intellectual Needs : Aesthetic and intellectual expressions and recreational
needs which find outlets in dancing, acting, poetry, art, science,
philosophy, social activities, games, and entertainment.
5. Religious Needs : Religion and its accompanying beliefs and
practices.
The five major interests enumerated above
account for practically all the institutions found in even the most highly
civilized societies. As a society develops, new interests arise, but they all
fit into the major categories; with these in mind, one should experience
difficulty in assigning a place to such present-day institutions as a college,
the stock market, Mother's Day, the game of baseball, cocktail-drinking, and
the movies.
The more highly developed a society is, the
greater will be the variety and, sometimes, the complexity of its institutions.
The fundamental institutions resulting from universal human needs will be found
in all societies, even in the most primitive. Goldenweiser, in Early
Civilization, showed that the psychological and physical needs of
mankind are basically the same, as are the physical conditions under which man
is forced to live. Hence, his activities and institutions are essentially alike
in all societies. Sumner and Keller asserted that the means adopted for meeting
universal needs "all reflect the inveterate conditions of life on
earth."
KINDS OF INSTITUTIONS
There are five primary institutions. These are
(i) the family, (ii) economics, (iii) religion, (iv) education, and (v) state.
There are a number of secondary institutions derived from each of the five
primary institutions. Thus, the secondary institutions derived from family
would be the marriage, divorce, monogamy, polygamy etc. The secondary
institutions of economics are property, trading, credit, banking etc. The
secondary institutions of religion are church, temple, mosque, totem, taboo
etc. The secondary institutions of education are school, college, university
etc. The secondary institutions of state are interest groups, party system,
democracy etc.
Institutions may grow as do the folkways, and
mores or they may be created just as laws are enacted. For instance, monogamy
or polyandry grew in response to some felt needs of the people. Banks grew as
the need for borrowing and lending money was felt. Schools and college are
created by deliberate choice and action. An important feature that we find in
the growth of institutions is the extension of the power of the state over the
other four primary institutions. The state now exercises more authority by laws
and regulations. Sometimes, folkways and mores are incorporated into laws, for
example, monogamy; sometimes, new laws may be enacted, for example, Hindu Code
Bill. Today the family is being regulated and controlled by the state in a
score of ways. A number of traditional functions of family have been taken over
by the state. The state has enacted laws regulating marriage, divorce, adoption
and inheritance. The authority of state has similarly been extended to
economics, to education and to religion.
An institution never dies. New institutional
norms may replace the old norms, but the institution goes on. For example, the
modern family has replaced the norms of patriarchal family, yet family as an
institution continues. When feudalism died, government did not end. The
governmental and economic functions continued to be fulfilled, although
according to changed norms. All the primary institutions are thousands of years
old, only the institutional norms are new.
Sumner and Keller has classified institutions in
nine major categories. He referred to them “as pivotal institutional
fields" and classified them as follows:
The economic and industrial, matrimonial and
domestic, political, religious, ethical, educational and scientific,
communicative, aesthetic and expressional, and health and recreational. No
doubt the list could be extended to include many minor institutions
Functions Of Institutions
The functions of institutions are of two kinds
: Manifest and (ii) Latent. Manifest functions are those functions which
are intended and main functions, those functions for which the institution
primarily exists. Latent functions are unintended functions. They are not the
primary functions but only the by-products. Thus the manifest functions of
education are the development of literacy, training for occupational roles and
the inculcation of basic social values. But its latent functions would be
keeping young off the labour market, weakening the control of parents or
development of friendship. The manifest functions of religion are worship of
God and instruction in religious ideology. Its latent functions would be to
develop attachment to one's religious community, to alter family life and to
create religious hatred. The manifest function of economic institutions is to
produce and distribute goods, their latent functions may be to promote
urbanization, promote the growth of labour unions and redirect education. The
latent functions of an institution may support the intended objectives, or may
damage the norms of the institution.
It is clear that institutions are subject to
gradual growth. Every institution has its antecedents, even though some may
give the impression of sudden appearance. According to Sumner, institutions may
be divided into crescive, or those developing gradually through the
process of accretion, and enacted, or those appearing as a result
of conscious and rational effort. The state is an example of the former, and a
college or bank of the latter. This distinction, however, does not imply that
enacted institutions arise abruptly and without antecedents, but primarily that
their formation is more rapid and involves rational purpose. .
1. Institutions Serve Chiefly as a Means of
Meeting the Needs of a Society :
Those needs range from the essential ones,
without which social life could not go on, to those relatively unimportant,
which are more or less dispensable. No institution arises unless a need is
felt. This is not to say, however, that there are no institutions or
institutional forms in existence in a society which fail to meet a present
need. On the contrary, some are mere survivals of the past; although they had
utility at one time, they have become useless or even harmful. (An example of a
harmful institution is the caste system in the South.) Moreover, even many of
the fundamental institutions may need modification in order to make them
function more satisfactorily under changed conditions.
2. Institutions Serve as a Means of Regulating
and Controlling Man's Activities :
This is particularly true of governmental
institutions, but in a broader sense all institutions exercise control over the
members of a society by making it clear to them what is and what is not
allowed, or what is and what is not desirable. Finally it must be remembered
that the various institutions are not independent entities, but are
interrelated as well as interdependent.
It is clear from
what has been said that in an advanced and complex society the number and
variety of institutions are very great. Every important phase of life is
institutionalized. But there are, as we have seen, only a few major, or
pivotal, institutions, an analysis of which yields a more or less adequate
picture of society.
Inter-Relations Of Institutions
A social structure owes its stability to a
proper adjustment of relationships among the different institutions. No
institution works in a vacuum. Religion, education, family, government and
business all interact on each other. Thus education creates attitudes which
influence the acceptance or rejection of religious dogmas. Religion may exalt
education because it threatens the faith. Business conditions may influence the
family life. Unemployment may determine the number of people who feel able to
marry. An unemployed person may postpone his marriage till he gets employed in
a suitable job. Postponement of marriage may affect the birth rates. The state
influences the functions of institutions. It may take over some of their
functions and determine their institutional norms. The businessmen, educators,
clergymen and the functionaries of all other institutions also seek to
influence the acts of state, since state action may obstruct or help the
realization of their institutional objectives.
Thus, social institutions are closely related to
each other. The inter-relationships of the various institutions can be likened
to a wheel. The family is the hub while education, religion, government and
economics are the spokes of the wheel. The rim would be the community within
which the various institutions operate.
All institutions face the problem of
continuously adjusting themselves to a changing society. Changes in the social
environment may bring changes in all the institutions. Inflation may have a
great influence on marriage, death, crime and education. Breakdown of economic
institutions may have radical effects upon political institutions. Any change
in an institution may lead to a change in the other institutions. There may
also take place a shifting of functions from the institution to another. Child
care, formerly a function of family, has now shifted to the state. When one
institution fails to meet a human need, another institution will often assume
the function. No institution can avoid affecting other institutions or avoid
being affected by others.
Explanation Of Institutionalized Behaviour
Although the basic institutions can be found in
one form or another in every society, societies vary greatly in the concrete
regulative principles upheld in such institutions. They vary especially in more
specific 'partial' institutional crystallizations, such as various rituals and
ceremonies on the one hand, and bodies of folkloristic traditions on the other.
The institutional structure may vary in extent of their universality, the
extent to which they are spread within a given society and the extent to which
they are institutionalized.
The existence of institutions both as regulative
patterns and as basic institutional spheres has been considered as given in the
very nature of society. Institutionalized behaviour can be seen as the most
general evolutionary universal in human societies.
There are few adequate explanations of the ways
in which these patterns of normatively regulated behaviour first arose.
Functionalist Perspective
The emergence and presumed universality of
institutions has been explained in several ways. Some of them are as follows :
1.
In terms of needs of
individual and of societies. Thus institutions are explained as providing for
such presumed needs and assuring the survival of the society and the adequate
functioning of the society.
2.
In terms of the needs of
other institutions and ecosystems and conditions. A specific concrete
institutional pattern, e.g., political or economic has been explained as
being conditioned or necessitated by or congruent with the needs and
prerequisites of the functioning of certain organized systems in other
institutional sphere e:g. cultural or familial.
3.
In terms of
psychological tendencies or socio-structural laws. This can be found in
Murdock's analysis on kinship nomenclature which combines various
principles of learning theory and anthropology.
4.
In terms of gratification of various needs and
resolution of psychological conflicts which develop within a society. The
conflicts are seen primarily as developing from the encounter between the
institutional setting of the society, especially as it is mediated through
the process of socialization.
The functionalist perspective, however fruitful
it may be for an explanation of institution in general, does not provide
adequate explanation. The first weak point of such analysis has been the
assumption of the uniformity of any given institution within a society. They do
not specify the ways and mechanism through which the needs of individuals and
society can be linked. In addition, this perspective tends to assume that such
needs must be fulfilled. They fail to investigated the degree to which they are
satisfied and the conditions that facilitate or impede satisfaction. Finally,
it does not specify the ways in which both such needs and their relation to various
structural arrangement may change.
Change And Conflict In Institutional Systems
The possibility of innovation and change is not
something external to any institutional system. Whatever the success of the
attempt of institutional entrepreneurs to establish and legitimize common norms
in terms of common values and symbols, these norms are probably never fully
accepted by the entire society.
Most groups tend to exhibit some autonomy in
terms of their attitudes toward these norms and in-terms of their willingness
or ability to provide the resource demanded by the given institutionalized
system.
Some groups may be greatly opposed to the very
premises to the institutionalization of given system, may share its values only
to a very small extent and may accept those norms only as the least among evils
and as finding on them only in a limited sense.
Others may share these values and accept the
norms to a greater degree but may look on themselves as the more truthful
repositories of these same values. They may oppose the concrete levels at which
the norms are institutionalized by the elite in power and may attempt to
interpret them in different ways.
Others may develop new interpretations of
existing values and strive for a change in the very bases of the institutional
order.
Hence, the institutional system is never fully
homogeneous and to different orientation may becomes focuses of conflict and of
potential institutional changes.
Sources of Conflict :
An institutionalization entails efforts to
maintain, through continuous attempts to mobilize resources from different
groups and individuals. But continuous implementation may affect the position
of various groups and give rise of continuous shifts both in the balance of
power among them and their orientations to the existing institutional system.
The institutionalization of any system usually
creates new organizations which develop needs, interests and orientation of
their own. This may impinge on various other institutional spheres. Thus
changing their attitudes toward the premises of the systems.
These contradictions and conflicts may lead to
the depletion of the resources needed to maintain any given system.
IMPORTANT TERMS |
·
Autonomy: Self
government; freedom from outside direction. ·
Bureaucracy: A
pyramid of officials who conduct rationally the work of a large organization. ·
Intellectual: One
whose work is dealing mainly with ideas. ·
Latent functions: Unintended
effects of a policy, program or institution. ·
Manifest functions
: Intended purposes of a policy, programme or institution. · Ombudsman: An
official empowered to investigate and sometimes adjust complaints against
officials. ·
Institutions : An
organized cluster of folkways and mores created around a major human
activity. |
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