American sociologist Talcott Parsons is best known for his macro-sociological approach known as functionalism or structural-functionalism. Parsons' functionalism is not to be confused with the structural-functionalism of Bronislaw Malinowski and Alfred R. Radcliffe-Brown. In the book The Social System (1951a), Parsons outlines the basics of his version of the structural-functionalist approach. He believes that there are five dichotomous pairs, which he calls "patterned variables", which allow the actor to oscillate between two poles of these pairs. These pairs are:

1) affectivity and affective neutrality;

2) self-orientation and collectivity orientation;

3) universalism and particularism;

4) ascription and achievement;

5) specificity and diffuseness.

In addition, these dichotomous pairs can be used to describe entire societies, so American society would be characterized by universalism and achievement.

Parsons uses earlier sociological division of our world into three different systems - personality, culture, and society - in order to explain social acts. Personality contains motivations, attitudes, and values ​​that an actor has internalized, society consists of a set of positions and roles, while culture consists of values ​​and symbols. Each of these three systems is autonomous, although there is a significant overlap of each with the other two systems. Parsons sees the social system as a system within which many individual actors strive to achieve the optimum of satisfaction, while the situations in which the action takes place are defined and mediated by a system of symbols organized by culture. The concept of "role" is the most important analytical tool because the role is the intersection of all three systems - personality, culture, and society. The social role is a set of expectations and mutual predictions of other people concerning the role holder; culture regulates the rules of role performance using common symbols and values; while the person is the one who takes over and plays social roles. Actors, as individuals, need to internalize the values ​​that provide motivation for action that enables the successful performance of roles, which further strengthens social consensus.

Every social system, regardless of size, must meet the following requirements, that is, functional pre-requisites: 1) adaptation - adaptation to the environment by changing and controlling it; 2) goal attainment - methodical mobilization of resources to achieve specific goals; 3) integration - solidarity and survival of the cohesive whole; 4) latency / latent pattern maintenance - production, accumulation, and distribution of energy that maintains the motivation of actors, but also the stability of cultural patterns that enable reproduction of that motivation. This theoretical scheme is often abbreviated in sociology as AGIL, the first four letters of the four functional prerequisites in English.

Parsons divides the social system into four main subsystems: 1) economic system - it serves to adapt society to the environment (A); 2) political system - it works to achieve goals (G); 3) societal community - it should achieve integration (I); and 4) the fiduciary system – works to achieve the maintenance of patterns (L). The subsystem of the societal community has the most important function because this subsystem is in charge of the integration of society. Social integration is realized by creating a sense of loyalty among the actors, both towards the whole society and towards the positions and roles that the actor himself fulfills. Each of the four subsystems has its own communication medium: economic system – money; political system - power; societal community - influence; fiduciary system - values.

Parsons emphasizes the concept of "equilibrium", which serves as a heuristic tool used in conjunction with the concept of inertia. No social system is ever in a state of complete inertia, nor can it achieve perfect integration of parts. To maintain balance, it is necessary to have institutions that can mediate in overcoming internal conflicts or failures in coordination. Such institutions are created by an integrative subsystem, and its function is to adapt individuals by enabling the internalization of legitimate values ​​in the form of value patterns. These patterns maintain the integrative needs of the system and foster cooperation, while at the same time neutralizing deviant behavior. The final effect of the integrative subsystem is to lead to a situation in which the equilibrium (balance) of all parts within the system represents the normal state of human society, while conflict, although constantly present, is a residual and abnormal element.

                                    Evolution of Societies

In the books Societies: An Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives (1966) and The System of Modern Societies (1971), Parsons, for the first time, pays great attention to social change and the process of social evolution. He presents the view of evolution, not as a straightforward process, but as a process that implies a large number of possible paths of development. In addition, unlike some other evolutionary theories, which have focused on a single factor as the source of evolutionary change, Parsons believes that there are multiple causes of evolutionary change. The evolutionary progress of societies is reflected in the constant increase in the ability to adapt. The evolutionary progress and development of society depends on four correlated processes that serve to improve society's ability to achieve the four functional imperatives of the AGIL scheme:

(A) adaptive upgrading,

(G) structural differentiation,

(I) inclusion and

(L) value generalization.

Structural differentiation is the most important process and refers to increasing the number of positions and roles that better perform existing functions. With the increasing complexity of society comes greater adaptation. Inclusion refers to the inclusion of previously excluded groups of people. Value generalization ​​refers to the emergence of a new value system that is more complex and general. (Figure 2. shows the relationships between different aspects of the AGIL scheme). In the book Societies: An Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives (1966) Parsons singles out three main evolutionary stages of development of society: primitive, transitional, and modern. The primitive stage is characterized by two phases: 1) the most primitive phase (Australian Aborigines are at that level) and 2) the advanced primitive phase (the Nupe, Shiluk, and Zulu societies are given as examples of societies at this level). The transitional evolutionary stage also has two separate evolutionary phases: 1) the archaic phase (ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia) and 2) the advanced phase (the Chinese and Roman empires).

Parson had several notable collaborators in his project of development of functionalism, and one of the most notable was Neil Smelser.  Smelser underwent complete clinical training in psychoanalysis, while working as an assistant to Parsons, to help Parsons write the book Family, Socialization, and the Interaction Process (1955), which contained many psychoanalytic elements. Their collaboration continued after that and together they published the book Economy and Society (1956). In this book, they sought to integrate sociological and economic theory through the incorporation of economic concepts and mechanisms into their broader theoretical paradigm because they believed that the economy was connected and, in a way, part of society as a whole and that all individuals and collectives participated in a way, in the economy. 

In his book Social Change in the Industrial Revolution (1959), Smelser expands the functionalist model by introducing, to this predominantly static paradigm, an analysis of social change that he studied in the context of industrialization and modernization. He sees the industrial revolution as a multidimensional social process involving political, economic, family, cultural, and scientific change. Smelser shows how the modernization of production technology was related to changes in all other areas. He pays special attention to the question of how the factory system in Britain has influenced the change in the family structure and studies the gender division of labor as an independent variable that has affected both the economy and the family.

In the book Theory of Collective Behavior (1962), Smelser emphasizes the key importance of mobilization for collective action. He introduces the concept of "structural strain" to develop a multi-level model that explains many forms of collective behavior. He takes the concept of "added value" from economics, to explain the successive stages that occur in collective behavior. Smelser applies this approach to study the case of the emergence of new social movements. Each new stage in the development of social movements adds some new added value to the whole movement and thus increases the chance that collective behavior or social movements will be successful. When studying social movements, he believes that there is no specific mover, but they are always the result of several factors.

In this context, six elements add new value to social movements. 1) structural conduciveness – opportunities and resources available to movements; 2) structural strains - the emergence of “ambiguities, deprivations, conflicts, and discrepancies” (1962); the discrepancy between people's expectations and social reality, meaning, when the situation in society does not meet people's expectations; 3) generalized beliefs - beliefs and attitudes that are spread among the population and support the movement; 4) precipitating factors - events that serve as a spark for the sudden spread of dissatisfaction and mobilization; 5) mobilization for action - formation of a functional social network of activists, in order to carry out the necessary activities; 6) failure of social control - the authorities are not able to stop the formation and spread of the social movement.

American sociologist Kingsley Davis was one of the greatest early proponents of Parsons' functionalism. In his book Human Society (1949a), Davis explores the problem of the functioning of human social systems - what are the functional preconditions, and which structures are created to meet these preconditions. The book also examines the universal characteristics of all human societies, as well as the most important variations between different societies.

In the article "Some Principles of Stratification" (1945), published by Davis in collaboration with Wilbert Moore, the authors give the most famous defense of the functionalist approach to social stratification. The basic question that the authors want to answer is why different positions bring with them different levels of reputation. In every society, whether static or dynamic, people who occupy certain social positions are constantly changing, if not for other reasons, then at least due to the natural cycle of birth, aging, and dying. For the most important positions to be occupied by individuals who are most suitable for certain positions, society must provide a system of rewards that corresponds to the importance of the position itself. Awards have several motivating roles: to make the most talented individuals want to take a position, to motivate an individual to undergo training for a position, and finally, to motivate an individual to continue to perform that position to the best of their ability. In that sense, the distribution of awards becomes part of the social position and the basis of stratification.

The economic rewards that accompany a position are not a source, but a consequence of the importance and reputation that a position carries with it. Religion serves as a source of common goals and values, including the understanding that different positions deserve different rewards, so religion has a positive effect on the increased integration of society. Although the authors believe that, for the most part, stratification has been functional throughout history, they acknowledge that ownership of the means of production allows control of the human labor force (slavery is the most extreme example). This type of ownership serves as the basis of stratification, but it is not functional for society.

In the early 1970s, the popularity of the functionalist paradigm declined rapidly and is rarely used today in its original form, although neofunctionalism, which derived from functionalism, is still used by some social scientists. 

Authors: Bellah Robert, Coser A. Lewis, Davis Kingsly, Gans Herbert, Parsons Talcott, Smelser Neil, Sztompka Piotr, Yinger John Milton. Barber Bernard, Hempel Carl, Kaspar Naegele, Levy Marion, Mandelbaum Maurice, Maryanski Alexandra, Moore Wilbert, Pitts Jesse, Shils Edward, Tumin Melvin.

Books: 

Parsons, Talcott. The Social System (1951a);

     -     Toward a General Theory of Action (1951b);

     -     Economy and Society (1956a);

     -     Family Socialization and Interaction Process (1956b);