ABSTRACT

Sociological analysis should move back and forth between the social structure and the action and subjective awareness of individuals. This chapter shows that the transformation of eighteenth-century France is worth exploring as a prototype of societal transitions from tradition to modernity. The most serious objection to the terms "system" and "function" is that they take as given what is problematic, namely, the degree of interdependence and of unity that characterizes societies. And it is at this point that an evolutionary approach to social and political change is questionable. Complex social structures are never true to type; societies are always in transition from past to future. Eighteenth-century France was the major European power, both politically and culturally. The ideal of equality in the declaration referred to natural or moral equality, not to an absolute or literal equality. It is difficult to think of equality and representation as mutually compatible. It is difficult to think of equality and property as mutually compatible.