of a conflict theory. Before examining Spencer's answer to this question, it is helpful to briefly describe the functionalist and the conflict sociological paradigms.
As noted by Meta Spencer and Alex Inkeles (1982), Herbert Spencer is called a functionalist or structural functionalist because he envisioned societal parts as working together as a functioning whole. Thus the implication of this view is that if sociologists want to understand any given structure of society, they must discover the function of the structure within the society. What also needs to be noted about the functionalist perspective is that societal harmony and maintenance of the status quo appear to be key elements in the functionalistic explication of societal change.
The notion of equilibrium is important because it is this principle that appears to be the strongest point of disagreement between Spencer's functionalism and other theories of conflict. Equilibrium in society was a large part of Spencer's views. Indeed, Turner (1985) noted that the Spencerian perspective is
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