Voluntaristic Theory of Action

What is voluntaristic theory of action or voluntaristic action? It represents for Parsons a synthesis of the useful assumptions and concepts of utilitarianism, positivism, and idealism.Voluntaristic action involves six basic elements.

The “voluntaristic theory of action” represents for Parsons a synthesis of the useful assumptions and concepts of utilitarianism, positivism, and idealism. In reviewing the thought of classical economists, Parsons noted the excessiveness of their utilitarianism: unregulated and atomistic actors in a free and competitive marketplace rationally attempting to choose those behaviors that will maximize their profits in their transactions with others. Such a formulation of the social order presented for Parsons a number of critical problems. Yet, Parsons saw as fruitful several features of utilitarian thought, especially the concern with actors as seeking goals and the emphasis on the choice-making capacities of human beings who weigh alternative lines of action. Stated in this minimal form, Parsons felt that the utilitarian heritage could indeed continue to inform sociological theorizing.

In a similar critical stance, Parsons rejected the extreme formulations of radical positivists, who tended to view the social world in terms of observable cause-and-effect relationships among physical phenomena. In so doing, he felt, they ignored the complex symbolic functioning’s of the human mind. Furthermore, Parsons saw the emphasis on observable cause-and-effect relationships as too easily encouraging a sequence of infinite reductionism: groups were reduced to the causal relationships of their individual members; individuals were reducible to the cause and effect relationships of their physiological processes; these were reducible to physicochemical relationships, and so on, down to the most basic cause-and-effect connections among particles of physical matter. Nevertheless, despite these extremes, radical positivism draws attention to the physical parameters of social life and to the deterministic impact of these parameters on much – but, of course, not all – social organization.

Finally, in assessing idealism, Parsons saw as useful their conceptions of “ideas” as circumscribing both individual and social processes, although all too frequently these ideas are seen as detached from the ongoing social life they were supposed to regulate.

According to his theory-building strategy, Parsons began to construct a functional theory of social organization. In this initial formulation, he conceptualizes voluntarism as the subjective decision-making processes of individual actors, but he views such decisions as the partial outcome of certain kinds of constraints, both normative and situational. Voluntaristic action therefore involves these basic elements:

1. Actors who, at this point in Parsons’ thinking, are individual persons.
2. Actors are viewed as goal seeking.
3. Actors are also in possession of alternative means to achieve the goals.
4. Actors are confronted with a variety of situational conditions, such as their own biological makeup and heredity as well as various external ecological constraints that influence the selection of goals and means.
5. Actors are seen to be governed by values, norms and other ideas in that these ideas influence what is considered a goal and what means are selected to achieve it.
6. Action involves actors making subjective decision about the means to achieve goals, all of which are constrained by ideas and situational conditions.

Parsons’ work on action theory draws from Max Weber, who argued that action takes place when a person’s behavior is meaningfully oriented toward other social actors, usually in terms of meaningful values or rational exchange. Voluntaristic action, then, is never purely individualistic: people choose to act voluntarily within a context of culture and social situations in order to meet individual goals. Moreover, because human needs are met socially, people develop shortcuts to action by creating norms and by patterning action through sets of ends and means.

The Units of Voluntaristic Action

The diagram represents this conceptualization of voluntarism. The processes diagrammed are often termed the unit act, with social action involving a succession of such unit acts by one or more actors. This “unit act” are the basic building block of all ‘social actions’, and the smallest unit of an action system which still makes sense as part of  a concrete system of action as discussed by Parsons. Parsons chose to focus on such basic units of action for at least two reasons.

Firstly, he felt it necessary to synthesize the historical legacy of social thought about the most basic social process and to dissect it into its most elementary components.

Secondly, given his position on what theory should be, the first analytical task in the development of sociological theory is to isolate conceptually the systemic features of the most basic unit from which more complex processes and structures are built.

There are also a variety of factors in the unit act. The first and the foremost important are the conditions of action. There are of course occasions when we have some control over the initial context. But once the choice is made, the actor has little immediate agency or choice regarding the conditions under which actions takes place. Parsons has in mind such things as the presence of social institutions or organizations, as well as elements that might be specific to the situation, such as the social influence of particular people or physical constraints of the environment.

The second set of factors under which people act concerns the means and ends of action. Here we can see a fundamental difference between action and reaction: Action is goal oriented and involves choice. But for people to make choices among goals and means, the choices themselves must have different meanings. According to Parsons, the meanings of and relationships between means and ends are formed through shared value hierarchy. 

Cultural values are shared ideas and emotions regarding the worth of something, and values are always understood within a hierarchy, with some goals and means more highly valued than others; otherwise it would be difficult to choose between one thing and another because you wouldn’t care. Choices among means and ends are also guided by norms. Norms are actions that have sanctions (rewards or punishments) attached to them. In summary, Parsons is arguing that human action is distinctly cultural and thus meaningful action.

___________________________________________________________________

  

You can visit some significant Theories by some Great Theorists:
Generalized Media of Exchange, Four-Function Paradigm (AGIL Model in Systemic Model), Cynicism (Circulation of Elites), Hierarchy of the Sciences (The Classification of the Science), The Philosophy of Money, Organicism, The Laws of Three Stages, Order and progress (Interrelation between Social Statics and Social Dynamics)

Reference:

• George Ritzer, Sociological Theory.
• Jonathan H. Turner, The Structure of Sociological Theory.
• Kenneth Allan, Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory.
• Ruth A. Wallace and Alison Wolf, Contemporary Sociological Theory.

___________________________________________________________________

Related Questions:

What the units of Voluntaristic Action according to Parsons?

Studying the theory-building strategy of Parsons through Voluntaristic Theory of Action.

Understanding the conceptualization of voluntarism.

Aptitude Amplifier ©2017. All Rights Reserved.