Durkheim: LeBon's Sociological Counterpart



Durkheim: LeBon's Sociological Counterpart

Durkheim was an intellectual, caught between liberalism and reactionaries. Like the reactionaries, Durkheim saw a moral crisis in the modern world. He seriously questioned whether France would survive in the wake of the rapid changes, the political instability and the violence that characterized the period 1789-1871.

The Protracted Struggle between Liberal Enlightenment and Reactionaries was particularly protracted in France.

In eighty-two years (three generations) there were:

- two revolutions and one revolutionary situation

- three monarchies

- two empires

- three republics

Consider the experience of three political generations:

- 1789-1815: Durkheim’s grandparents

- monarchy until July 1789

- republic, 1789-1802

- empire, 1802-1815: Napoleon I (Bonaparte)

- monarchy re-established in 1815

- 1815-1852: Durkheim’s parents

- monarchy re-established in 1815: Bourbon/Legitimists

- New monarchy established in 1830: Orleans (Louis Phillipe)

- republic, 1848-1852

- New empire established in 1852: Napoleon III

- 1852-1871: Durkheim’s generation

- empire, 1852-1870: Napoleon III

- republic 1870: Thiers

- German occupation in 1871

- Commune in 1871 when Germans withdraw, March 1871

- Republic re-established when commune is defeated in May 1871

Durkheim was born in 1858, during the Second Empire of Napoleon III. He was 13 years old during the Commune. He lived through the Third Republic. Before he died in 1917 he witnessed the German invasion of France, the failure of social-democracy in Germany, World War I, and the rise of communism in Russia.

LeBon was born in 1841 (during the Orleans monarchy). He was seven during the revolution of 1848. He was eleven when Napolean III seized power and was 30 during the brief but spectacular Commune. He outlived Durkheim (dying in 1931—just before the rise of Hitler and the German Nazi regime).

Why Read LeBon?

I. His work is a classic statement of the collective behavior tradition of social movements

A. He is extremely conservative (and reminds me of Durkheim in many ways)

1. convinced that science is objective pursuit of truth

a. objectivity (p.iii)

b. pursuit of laws that are knowable but unknown (p. vi)

2. counsels slow change (pp. iv, x-xiii, 46)

3. has very low opinion of common people, individually or collectively

4. accepts that enlightenment institutions (e.g., juries: see p. 114) are no worse than what precedes or follows

You might note that he is also sexist and racist, but he differs from Durkheim and resembles Spencer in his evolutionary and reductionist model of society as the expression of the race. In fact, this goes beyond Spencer, who was something of a behaviorist. LeBon is more of what we would now call a psycho-biologist: see quotes on pp. 46, 49, 51. Where LeBon differs in this regard from Spencer and Durkheim is that he (LeBon) in a psychologist rather than a sociologist. His evolutionary model of society (unlike Spencer) does not involve progress but cycles. It seems that the cycle from barbarism to empire to republic and then back to barbarism (p. 139) mirrors the cycle of human life (from birth to death).

Nevertheless, like Durkheim (but unlike Spencer), LeBon views religion as the base for society (p. 41).

B. He views collective behavior as "social" (action that differs from individual behavior because of the influence of others)

1. mental unity (p. 2); collective mind (p. 4)

2. sense of power/invincibility (p. 6)

3. contagion (pp 6-7)

4. suggestibility (p. 7, 14-21)

5. impulsivity (p. 8)

6. lack of individual self-interest/judgement (p. 9, 28)

C. He views collective behavior as irrational (pp. 33-4, 38)

1. impulsive, unconscious motives (p. 11)

2. exaggerated sentiments (p. 22)

3. traditionalism (p. 33, 45-46

D. He views collective behavior as inspired by (p. 44)

1. remote factors (generalized beliefs: see Smelser)

2. immediate factors (pp. 60-66)

3. mass leaders (pp. 72-76)

4. mass communication (pp. 77-81)

a. affirmation

b. repetition

c. contagion

5. mass beliefs

a. prestige (pp. 81-89)—see Weber on charisma; Durkheim on sacred/profane

b. fixed beliefs (pp. 89-93): see Comte and Durkheim

c. changeable opinions (pp. 94-99)

II. LeBon Suggests that the Late 19th Century is the Age of the Crowd

A. His classification of crowds includes all modern political, social and economic institutions (p. 101)

1. anonymous crowds: people in streets or shopping centers

2. juries, legislatures, committees

3. castes and classes

B. His treatment of grassroots versus institutional politics suggests very little difference between the two

1. here he differs from 20th century collective behavior theories

2. although he is quite far from collective action theories

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