ABSTRACT
The surviving version of chapter 5 is fairly bad. Parsons himself apparently kept only a copy of the typescript, with a page already missing. Contrary to the other chapters, the bulk of chapter 5 is apparently still the draft Parsons wrote between 1972 and 1973 (Parsons 1973c). In the subsequent years, Parsons kept revising, adding, and amending the text without having it retyped in its entirety. As a result, large sections of the text have handwritten corrections for nearly any word, and there are sections revised by others without clear signs of which of their corrections Parsons meant to approve. A final section was added at least two years later (Parsons 1975b), a number of inserts have been added in subsequent years, while still others have been crossed out at one time or another. The handwritten substitution of the term affect with the term collective sentiments in the whole text signals that a final systematic revision was carried out in the second half of 1976. The sheer amount of comments written on the margins-often with indications such as “reconsider” or “rewrite”—indicates that Parsons was planning a final revision of the text before the completion of the project.—Editor
Many social scientists have argued that internal conflicts and other forms of mal-integration will appear in any large scale society, regardless of any specific character of value systems (Coser 1956; Dahrendorf 1968). In the American case, as I have been arguing, a variety of background considerations suggest that it is more fruitful to start with an analysis of certain implications of the value system.
