Durkheim also argued the differences between the legal codes of these two types of societies. In mechanical societies, because of the similarity, individuals share value and norms through family and religion, so the legal code is based on repressive sanctions. But in organic societies, as contract and some other morality is needed, there are restitutive law helping to maintain the social stability.
To social solidarity, there are some threats. Durkheim thought in industrial societies, egoism or anomie could undermine the control over individuals. Anomie, which means normlessness, was believed to be produced by the specialized division of labor and rapid industrialization. In Durkheim’s phrasing, during the transition from mechanical societies to organic societies, ‘the scale is upset; but a new scale cannot be immediately improvised. Time is required for the public conscience to reclassify men and things.’ (Haralambos, 2000, p.692) He argued that the cause of anomie is not the existence of division of labor, is the situation in which the division of labor could not make the society integrate organically. In the period of transition between mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity, there might be lack of normative regulation of action, which characterizes the “anomic division of labor”. Individuals would not have a clear set of collective conscience to follow.
Durkheim thought the level of anomie can be indicated by the level of suicide, industrial conflict and crime. Suicide is the most famous concept so far. Suicide is a highly personal act, and most people think it seems to be more psychological rather than sociological. But Durkheim thought it is rather sociological after studying the rate of suicide. The result is that suicide rates are different countries. He took an example that the suicide rate in Protestant countries is higher than in Catholic countries. And the rates would rise during periods of economic depression and fall during periods of economic prosperity. That means the rates could be implicated by some social factors. Moreover, even in the same countries, the rates between different groups could vary. He found that in the same countries, people who are unmarried or childless are more likely to commit suicide than the ones who are married or with children. Depending on the degree to which individuals were integrated into social groups and the degree to which they were regulated by society, Durkheim distinguished four types of suicide: egoistic suicide, anomic suicide, altruistic suicide and fatalistic suicide. Egoistic suicide and anomic suicide are more significant in modern societies. Egoistic suicide resulted from the individual being insufficient integrated into the social groups and society to which he or she belonged. (Haralambos, 2000, p.975) It is because people would primarily think of themselves and be less concerned with their duties and obligations as individualism develops. Durkheim argued that the suicide rate of the people in Catholic religion is lower than Protestants because people in Catholic religion were integrated much more strongly into religious community but the Protestants were more likely to be encouraged to develop themselves. In another hand, he also pointed out that the people who were unmarried or with no child were less integrated into a family than the people married or with children, so the suicide rate of the unmarried or childless is higher. Anomic suicide resulted when individuals were insufficiently regulated by society, it occurred when the value consensus holding society together began to break down. (Kirby, 2000, p.510) Therefore during some rapid social change such as economic depression which might make individuals feel uncertain about the norms and value of their behavior, the suicide rate would rise, so does it during a period of economic prosperity. Durkheim thought egoistic suicide and anomic suicide affected industrial societies because in industrial societies, high level of specialization of division of labor makes individualism develops rapidly, but in pre-industrial societies, altruistic suicide and fatalistic suicide are more significant. Altruistic suicide occurred when individuals were integrated too strongly. In some traditional societies, Hindu would kill themselves at their husband’s funeral, for instance. Fatalistic suicide occurred when individuals were over-regulated by society.
Durkheim believed that the problem of anomie was temporary; it would disappear when proper organic solidarity is established. To overcome this problem, within the existing framework of industrial society, economic activity should be permeated by ideas and needs other than individual ideas and needs. (Haralambos, 2000, p.692) First, the state should regulate the economic activity and enforce a common morality on a notional level. Then, the most important means pointed out by Durkheim is occupational associations. Occupational associations have the power to make sure that all economic activity running following moral regulation, they can regulate everything about the business such as the relationships between employers and employees. Occupational associations could solve the problem of anomie by reintegrating individuals into a social group and establishing a consensus which could form the basis of the rules to regulate the economic activity. Moreover, Durkheim thought the key to a future moral order in industrial society was professional ethics produced by professional associations. Professional associations control training and education for lawyers or doctors, etc. They integrate individuals into an occupational group.
Nobody could understand the world perfectly, so did Durkheim. He used only mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity as ideal types of society and believed that all societies would follow same way to develop. In fact, societies could evolve in different ways to rather different types of solidarities. This can be proved both socially and historically. And his analysis of social order was mainly based on the concept of social solidarity. Social solidarity just can explain gradual social change well, but could not analyze rapid change such as revolution. Class and social conflict, as very important social problems, did not be explained much by social solidarity. So social solidarity brought Durkheim lack of depth of explaining social change and social conflict.
Durkheim saw the difference between repressive sanctions and restitutive law as a important basis to measure mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. But in fact, the contrast of the legal codes between these two solidarities was not so great as Durkheim thought. In pre-industrial age, the Trobriander Islanders did not use repressive sanctions at all and in today, some states such as South Africa still use highly repressive sanctions to keep the society stable.
Moreover, Durkheim believed that the suicide rate has a strong link with the degree of integration through the official statistics. But, the decision of whether one person is killed by suicide is determined by the coroner, and the coroner would be influenced by the family and friends of the deceased. Family and friends always would not like to accept the possibility of suicide, so they might reject it; in another hand, coroners always think a person without family or friends is more likely to commit a suicide. So, it is sure that a person who is integrated well into a group is less likely to kill himself rather than a person who is lack of family and friends. Therefore, the reliance used by Durkheim to analyze suicide is not sufficient to support his view.
Though Durkheim was criticized in many aspects, his effort on studying social solidarity, social change and social problems really promoted the development of sociological ideas and further research.
Bibliography
Bilton,T. ed 1981 Introductory Sociology London, Macmillan
Haralambos,M. & Holborn,M. 2000 Sociology Themes and Perspectives 5th ed, London, HarperCollins
Jary,D & Jary,J 1991 Dictionary of Sociology London, HarperCollins
Kirby,M. 2000 Sociology in Perspective Oxford, Heinemann
Miller,W. 1996 Durkheim, morals and modernity, London, UCL Press Ltd
Slattery,M. 1991, Key Ideas in Sociology, London, Macmillan
