ABSTRACT
Herbert Marcuse and C. Wright Mills provide variations on the basic theme that views conflict not as a random occurrence, but as the product of a capitalist social and economic structure. Ralf Dahrendorf categorizes conflict as legitimate and routinized or illegitimate and uncontrolled, as interest groups develop and begin to conflict with those having exclusive access to authority. Social conflict centers around access to authority, and as "quasi-groups" such as laborers become aware of differential access to that authority; their latent interests become manifest, and conflict increases. Lewis Coser illustrates through testable propositions how societies can be strengthened internally, relations between societies maintained and reinforced, and social pathology reduced—all through conflict. A theoretical debate in conflict analysis centers about the relationship of conflict to violence. The macroscopic view of conflict emerging from the review of transdisciplinary theory is essential for students of conflict. Mapping is a first step in intervening to manage a particular conflict.
