Another mechanism is social control where positive sanctions reward conformity while negative ones punish crime and deviance. As individuals are integrated through socialization and social control into a shared value consensus system, their behaviour is orientated towards pursuing societies shared goals and meeting its needs. The behaviour of each individual will be predictable and stable and allows cooperation with its needs. This integration into the shared normative order allows an orderly society to be possible.
To summarize the theory of Functionalism, in its entirety it has an optimistic, noncritical view upon society and believes that it is held together by a value consensus. It stresses that society have a natural need for law and order and that without such structured living, there would be severe anomie and chaos.
However, this idea is not supported by other theories; for instance, the conflict theory emphasizes the role of coercion and power in producing social order. This perspective is derived from the works of Karl Marx, who saw society as fragmented into groups that compete for social and economic resources. Marxists argue that society is not a harmonious unit but is jammed with conflict. It is based on exploitation and division of classes with conflicting views and imbalanced power. Stability is the result of the ruling class being able to prevent change by ideological manipulation and if this fails, then coercion. Shared values are merely a mask hiding the views of the ruling class. This false consciousness consequences in the fact that the working class does not acknowledge their exploitation and do not revolt as a result. Marxists believe that due to this, capitalism remains; social reproduction takes place leaving the rich richer and poor poorer.
Conflict theories, such as Marxism, see Functionalism as a conservative theory that emphasise the status quo. The key focus is on harmony and consensus rather than conflict. Marxists argue that this theory legitimates the privileged position of the ruling class or groups of authority who have the most to lose from any revolutionary changes in society.
To conclude on the theory of Marxism, it portrays a strong emphasis on society being in conflict. It proposes the importance of power and inequality and ideology as a means of social control, both suggesting that society is not how Functionalism views it. It challenges the principles of Functionalism by questioning the ignoring of conflict and disagreement and how it avoids the active nature of a human being.
A further theory that suggests that society is in fact not in consensus, but conflict, is Feminism. This particular theory assumes that the adequate level of order required in society is missing, focusing this upon the two sexes, male and female. They believe that society which is patriarchal creates clear divisions between the sexes through, ranging from educational opportunities and income within an occupation to the exploitation of women on agencies such as media. The concept of patriarchy is fundamental in Feminism. Social order is maintained by domination, with power in the hands of those with the greatest political, economic, and social resources. By extension, Feminist theory views society as composed of men and women, and more importantly, of powerful men who controlled socio-economic resources, thereby making the supply-demand structure slanted in a way that would by default benefit men and harm women's success. Radical feminists claim that due to the ongoing of a male-centred society, there is now patriarchal ideology which highlight that the female lifestyle has been developed to advantage the men. For example, the manners in which a woman dresses and behaves are for the benefit of men.
Another reason feminism opposes the idea of consensus is through the concept of gender role socialisation. As members of a society are developed through socialisation, feminists assume that social control is used to mould individuals to behave certain ways depending on their gender. This adopts the idea that commercial products such as toys for children are created regarding what is expected of them to play with. For instance, a young girl is stereotypically ‘supposed’ to play toys such as cooking stoves, ironing equipment and hovering machines; while boys on the other hand, are pushed into playing with cars, action figures and footballs.
Marxist feminism, a branched theory which combines the two conflict theories, explores how the elite benefit highly from the unpaid labour that working class women provide. These services involve keeping the breadwinner in best of health and fitness, along with keeping them in the best of moods through satisfying his needs. Subsequently, they are expectant to rear children and socialize them by teaching the norms and values of society as they will be the next generation of workers. This ultimately shows society is not consensus because it advocates that society is split into class and gender and treatment towards certain groups are unequal and purely based on how they can provide for society.
Finally, to conclude, on a whole, sociological theories are in argument if a society is either completely consensus or conflict based. Some theories believe it is consensus, while others put emphasis on conflict. One of these is the major theory of Functionalism which applies a positive and noncritical view upon society, which could be described as wearing rose-tinted glasses. However, this theory contrasts vastly with other theories which are conflict based in their entirety. For instance, Marxism emphasizes that society does not provide equality for every type of person, especially depending on class. A further example is the Feminist theory which stress the patriarchal influence upon society, for instance Radical feminists take great emphasis on patriarchal ideology.