Sociology: Friend or Foe?

Extract

Sociology is not a universally beloved human science. It may have gained prestige in some quarters in recent years but it has enemies and opponents, who believe that in the long run sociology does more harm than good. During the past year the Chilean generals removed it with good reason from the universities and have declared null and void all degrees heretofore awarded in the subject. In some of the ways in which it has developed during the past half century, it can rightly be called a science of debunking. The movement in part started with Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) who made it his task to explain the non-rational, non-scientific nature of ideologies, and similarly much in thought and action that is said to be based on the obvious, the rational, and the true. In a different direction, sociological surveys have pricked other kinds of bubbles, and by the use of statistics, interviews, and other ‘factual’ devices, they have been able to mirror the gap between the ideal and the real, between the image and what actually occurs, between social intention and social achievement. One contemporary example can be seen in the analysis of local government. The procedures and decisions that are made by the authorities are very far from being democratic, very far from taking into account the wishes of those for whom measures are enacted. An examination of the activities of the local town hall along with the experiences of those who are governed by it allow one to assume that Pareto was right—even in the heart of a country priding itself as being democratic, government is indeed carried out by an élite, professional or elected.