Transcript SOC4044 Sociological Theory Vilfredo Pareto Dr. Ronald Keith

chapter 8:
Sociological Theory of
Vilfredo Pareto
Vilfredo Pareto
References
Coser, L. A. (1977). Masters of sociological thought: Ideas in historical
and social context (2nd ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
College Publishers.
Perdue, W. D. (1986). Sociological theory: Explanation, paradigm, and
ideology. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.
Stephan, E. (n. d.). Sociology 302, history of thought: Vilfredo Pareto.
Retrieved on September 9, 2002 from Western Washington
University Web site:
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Sociology/302/pareto/pareto.ht
ml
Turner, J. H, Beeghley, L., & Powers, C. H. (1998). The emergence of
sociological theory (4th ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth Publishing
Company.
Vilfredo Pareto
1848-1923
Born in Paris, France
Family
Father
Italian nobleman
Political exile
Mother
French
Education
Polytechnic Institute in Turin
Engineering degree
Vilfredo Pareto
Pareto’s contributions to sociology were
matched by his early efforts in the field of
economics.
Beginning in 1893, Pareto taught
economics at the University of Lausanne
in Switzerland
(Perdue, 1986)
Vilfredo Pareto
Two Major Turning Points in Pareto’s Intellectual
Life
First, over time the engineer-economist became
convinced of the limitations of narrowly down
conceptions of economic systems and advanced
the need for a general theory of society.
1902-1903 Pareto published The Socialist Systems
1915 Pareto published General Treatise on Sociology
1935 republished under the title of The Mind and Society
Vilfredo Pareto
Throughout his writing career, the thrust of
Pareto’s work was toward an equilibrium
model of society.
His conception of the social system came to
highly influential at Harvard University, particularly
in the work of Talcott Parsons
Vilfredo Pareto
The second major turning point in his
intellectual develop was in the areas of
politics and ideology.
In his youth, he was swayed by the
democratic and humanitarian ethic. He
opposed the authority of the church and the
ready resort to military force that swept
European history.
Vilfredo Pareto
Over time Pareto’s early sentiments were to change.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, he wrote
scores of articles calling for the reorganization of society
along the lines of laissez-faire economics.
In the current Italian politics, the ideals of democracy came
to assume a socialist face.
• Pareto’s fiercely retained his “liberal” conception of free trade,
while repudiating political equality.
• Pareto had decided that his own prior reasoning in support of
political liberty was more emotional than rational—he did not
support the concepts of democracy and ideology.
• One of his admirers was Benito Mussolini, who offered him a
seat in the Italian senate shortly before Pareto’s death in 1923.
Vilfredo Pareto
Pareto’s views were shaped by the history
and experience of Italy during his lifetime.
The attempt toward democracy was a
failed one…and he did not give much to
hope in the “masses” due to what actually
happened in Italy.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
Pareto’s theory is written in the positivist
tradition
A very good fit with the ideal type of the
order paradigm
Pareto assumed sociology to be an
empirical discipline, meant to follow the
methodological lead of the natural
sciences.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
Logico-experimental Method
Social investigations are based solely on
experience and observation
Pareto believed that the highest form of
human organization is the social system.
It logically follows that the natural state of
society is one of dynamic equilibrium.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
Pareto embraced Spencer’s position on
noninterference (especially as it applied to
laissez-faire economics).
Pareto was influenced by both Spencer and
Durkheim in the concepts of greater
differentiation and interrelationships.
Pareto’s conception of society was drawn from
his engineering background…replacing the
organism concept (biological) with a mechanical
image/system concept.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
Of crucial importance was Pareto’s conception of
society as a system of elements or variables in a
state of reciprocal and mutual interdependence.
Pareto did not accept the Enlightenment
philosophical influence used by his
predecessors—the ideal of unilinear
progress. Comte and Spencer held fast to the
Hobbesian conception of the antisocial being
saved from mutual destruction only through
reason.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
 However, Pareto went
beyond Hobbes. When
the promise of progress
in his native Italy fell far
short of fruition, he was
drawn to perhaps the
starkest portrait of
human nature in Western
philosophy, that of
Niccolo Machiavelli,
author of The Prince.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
In The Prince, Machiavelli argued that the ordinary
sentiments of humankind are those of greed and
selfishness. In concrete terms, those who are subject
to political authority are without gratitude, honesty,
and courage. The subject population by nature is
unable to resist the passions of the moment and will
violate both principles and rights of other. At an
intellectual level, there is no creative thought but only
the imitation of authority. It is this imitation of
authority, together with the desire for selfpreservation, that represents the only hope for
human redemption.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
Machiavelli did not specify precisely how those in power
came to avoid the disaster of such a nature. However, he
found in the despicable conditions of the subject population
a mandate for political action. He wrote that rulers are
required to employ means that are beyond the pale of
personal morality. These include a mastery of legal
forms of social control but may also include
deception, brute force, and the evaluation of all
strategies by means of the ultimate end to which
they are put.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
• Therefore, the ruler is advised to give the appearance of
virtue, piety, and thrift, thus behaving as the fox. Or
when necessary, the ruler must resort to power and
cruelty as does the lion. In the words of Machiavelli, it
is “safer to be feared than loved.” The power of
such imagery had a striking impact on Vilfredo Pareto.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Assumptions
Pareto witnessed a terrible, messy change in
Italy’s move toward democracy. He saw that the
disenfranchised workers and peasants of Italy
press for land reform, union organization, and
public works. While Pareto was a laissez-faire
revolutionary, he did not see democracy as the
best political means to achieve an ideal
economic system for the country. The masses
were not logical in their decision-making
processes.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
The general logic of Pareto’s work follows
from his conception of society as a
systematic whole made up of
interdependent parts. He argued forcefully
that the introduction of change at any
point affecting any part will
necessarily produce change in other
parts, as well as in the total system.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
 Forces within society work to maintain the existing form
of social organization and to ensure that change is
orderly and compatible with the nature of the social
system. Hence, for Pareto, change is not conceived
in terms of dramatic institutional response. To the
contrary, action and reaction within the system
represent a process of maintaining order in the
presence of threats. As with homeostasis in physiology,
the components of society compensate
automatically for alterations or strain in the
external environment.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
The relationships among variables in Pareto’s
system are not unilateral. As a rule,
relationships involve reciprocal dependence.
For this reason, Pareto rejected the traditional
conception of cause and effect as both onesided and simplistic. He believed that the
association of social variables could be best
understood as functional, but he appears to
have employed a mathematical conception of
function.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
By this we mean that the state of the
variable depends on and changes with
another (or other) variable(s). In a
quantitative sense, fluctuations in the system
can best be conceived as correlation, as a
matter of the degree of relative
correspondence. This is different from
Durkheimian functionalism, where the focus is
on the purposes of social practices.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
For Pareto, the most important elements of a
social system are those that are universal, that
is, found in all systems. These constant
elements tend to be regular and uniform and to
demonstrate continuity over time. He argued
that the identification and measurement of
the constant components that comprise the
social system represent sociology’s reason for
being.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Logical and Nonlogical
Turning his attention to the members of society,
Pareto held that human action within the system
can be classified as logical or nonlogical.
Logical action occurs when a preponderance of
rigorous evidence is employed by the actor to a
assess (a) whether an end be realistically
achieved, and if so, (b) what the best means
are to reach that goal.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Influenced heavily by Machiavelli, Pareto argued that
logical action is unusual (confined typically to such
rational behavior as economic and scientific conduct).
Rather, it is nonlogical action, reflective of
underlying human sentiments or innate instincts,
that dominates the range of human behavior.
Pareto did not separate human action from the social
system. Rather, he incorporated both the logical and
nonlogical within its internal dynamics.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
(Stephan, n. d.)
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Equilibrium
 Pareto held that systemic equilibrium is a consequence
of the constancies of external conditions and internal
elements.
External conditions consists of two major categories: the impact
on society by its natural environment (geography) and the
influences represented by other systems or by the same system
at an earlier historical stage.
Internal elements can be classified into principal types. These
are economic, residues, derivations, social stratification,
and the circulation of the elite.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Residues: Another internal element consist of
nonlogical actions that are manifestations of
underlying mental or psychic states or sentiments.
Termed residues, such manifestations
correspond with innate dispositions that
appear to be bioinstinctual in essence. At the
individual level, residues seem synonymous with
drives or basic impulses that ordinarily
culminate in social interaction. Such an
interpretation has to be inferred from Pareto’s
classification of residues as well as his general
usage of the concept.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
• Pareto identified 51 residues and combined them into six
distinct classes:
– Combinations: the impulse to form associations and
categories of things, events, and ideas
– Persistence of Aggregates: the impulse to preserve
abstractions, symbols, and social relationships over time
– Sentiments through Exterior Acts: impulse to express
powerful underlying emotions through religious rituals,
political agitation, and so forth
– Sociability: the impulse to impose uniform standards of
behavior to realize popularity, prestige, and standing
– Integrity of Personality: impulse to preserve the
personality
– Sexuality: impulse toward all sexually related action
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Derivations: constitute the next constant and
internal element of social systems. Derivations are
a form of nonlogical action. And just as residues
are manifestations of sentiments, so too are
derivations manifestations of residues. Derivations
are in effect ideologies or “pseudo-logical”
defenses that are subject to further classification.
These are assertions, appeals to authority, claims
that are in accordance with prevailing sentiments
or conventional wisdom, and verbal proofs that
employ ambiguity, abstractions, and analogies in
lieu of hard evidence.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
• It is crucial at this juncture to make note of Pareto’s
theoretical intent. By means of his residues and
derivations, he sought not only to identify constant
elements of the social system but to construct a basis
for criticizing rival theories that did not measure up to
his “logico-experimental” conception of science. Thus,
for Pareto, both the social system and his theoretical
attempts to explain it were based on logical action.
Alternative theories, especially those that seemed to
offer an alternative view of society, were dismissed as
mere “deviations,” ideologies masquerading as science.
They sought legitimacy through assertion, authority,
“what everybody knows,” and verbal obtuseness.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
 Pareto arrives at his distinctions between residues and derivations
by the following procedure: He investigates doctrines that are
associated with action, for example, Christian religious doctrine or
liberal political theory. From these theories he separates those
elements that correspond to the standards of logico- experimental
science. Next, he separates the remaining nonscientific elements
into constants (residues) and variables (derivations). Derivations
only arise when there is reasoning, argument, and ideological
justification. When these are present, Paretian analysis looks for the
underlying relatively constant elements (residues) (Coser, 1977).
 Clarification…residues are MORE constant than derivations. Derivations
are constant within a specific time of a specific social system. Residues
are constant within all social systems over time (Bolender).
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
 For example, we find in all ages a great variety of verbalizations
and doctrines connected with the sexual sphere. These may take
the form of pornographic literature or of the denunciation of sexual
license. There are strict and permissive theories about proper
sexual conduct. Ascetic doctrines condemn what hedonistic
doctrines extol. But throughout all these manifold derivations
runs a common sexual residue, which remains remarkably
stable at all times. Styles, modes, fashions, and ethical theories
about the sexual sphere vary immensely, but a uniform sexual
nucleus always crops up in a variety of new doctrinal disguises
(Coser, 1977).
 The styles, modes, fashions, and ethical theories are derivations of the
residues (Bolender).
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Social Stratification: By such, Pareto meant that residues
are differentially distributed among individuals, groups, and
classes in society. Such a state of affairs, when combined
with real moral, intellectual, and physical differences,
represents the basis for inequality. This fundamental
component of society means that all theories of political
democracy, classlessness, and mass government are
contradicted by the systemic imperative of social
stratification. Therefore, egalitarian conceptions of
society can be nothing more than derivations
(unfounded ideologies) used by ruling circles to
control the lower strata.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Circulation of the Elite: History, Pareto argued,
is the “cemetery of aristocracies.” By this he
sought to show that although stratification
is a part of the natural order of things, the
composition of its elite circles does not
remain unchanged. According to Pareto, those
on the top often resort to measures of repression
that sustain them for long periods. However,
sooner or later the “more fit” members of the
subject classes will demand their place. If they are
not assimilated into the existing elite, then the
historical stage is set for the revolution.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
• Pareto found specific residues at the base of the circulation of
the elite. These are the residues of combinations and
persistence of aggregates.
– Combination residues are the basis for grand schemes of
political and financial empire building, or the bringing
together of state power and the interests of economic
enterprise. The elite act in the style of Machiavelli’s foxes,
and although they are willing to innovate and assume
risks, they prefer deception to force.
– Persistence of aggregates residues, on the other hand,
dominate a contending body of elite. For Pareto, these
were Machiavelli’s lions with their strong and enduring
attachment to family, class, country, and other traditional
social relationships. Here we find the patriots and
nationalists who fear neither the use of violence nor the
raw exercise of power. Pareto’s world saw the
predominance of foxes. Soon, he predicted, the day of the
lion would dawn. History fulfilled his prediction.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Pareto’s Basic Argument in The Rise and Fall
of the Elites
 Cyclical changes occur in the sentiments—that is, values, beliefs,
and world view—of economic and political elites as well as
nonelites.
 At any time, political processes are dominated by elites, whose
members are either lions or foxes. Lions are strong willed, direct,
and conservative. They favor adherence to tradition and show little
reluctance to use force. On the other hand, foxes are cunning and
devious. Their bravado can be toothless posturing and false
imagery. They view government as the art of deceit,
misinformation, and secret deals, all cloaked behind a veil of
propaganda.
(Turner, Beeghley, & Powers, 1998)
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
At any given time, economic processes are
dominated by elites, whose members are either
rentiers or speculators. Rentiers tend to be
conservative, are interested in long-term
investments, and tend to favor enterprises that
produce tangible goods or provide necessary
services. Speculators accept risk, are interested
in short-term profitability, and tend to engage in
middleman enterprises that make money by
transferring things from one set of hands to
another without incurring production costs.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Because members of elites tend to recruit
others like themselves, excluding those who
violate their sentiments, political and economic
elites tend to become homogeneous over
time.
Homogeneous elites destroy economic and
political vitality and are vulnerable to overthrow
by their opposites. Therefore, a country
dominated by one kind of elite loses strength
and stature. Lions and rentiers are eventually
replaced by foxes and speculators, and vice
versa.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
The rate at which change occurs is a dual
function of how exploitive elites become and the
skill with which elites use force, co-optation, and
propaganda to maintain their position.
As nonelites become alienated by exploitive
activities, their alienation eventually creates
pressures that exceed the capacity of elites to
use forces, thereby resulting in the replacement
of one of elite by another type.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
The cycles of elites re positively correlated
with each other and with economic
conditions, with the result that lions and
rentiers tend to ascend to elite positions
together during times of economic
contraction, whereas foxes and
speculators tend to ascend to the elite
positions during times of economic growth
and prosperity.
Vilfredo Pareto:
Theoretical Content
Accompanying, and roughly
corresponding to, these political and
economic cycles are cycles are ideological
beliefs between conservative and liberal
tenets.
Vilfredo Pareto:
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Vilfredo Pareto:
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Vilfredo Pareto:
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