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Sociology 81
about students who have been dismissed from the Gymnasium mention lack of
substantive interest and insufficient motivation; the implication is always that it
is not the task of the school to develop such attitudes, which must be rather
imparted by the family. The author also mentions some public opinion polls on
the subject of what respondents consider their own most desirable qualities.
Almost half the respondents give priority to Familiensinn (deep attachment to
the family).’3
The use of linguistic cues in Dahrendorf‘s study deserves special comment.
Social linguistics has become a new field of interest. In its more elementary
form sociolinguists ask how social structures are reflected in language habits. At
a more sophisticated level, they examine the reverse flow. That is, whereas the
language which children learn affects the way in which they perceive their
social environment, what they perceive affects their mode of handling social
relations. Therefore, over the generations, language affects social structures.
Study of the interaction between language and social structure is a new topic of
sociological analysis. For the macrosociologist, linguistic cues deserve special
attention, even if they must be bolstered by other types of cues. The American
candidate ‘runs’ for election; the Britisher ‘stands’ for Parliament; the French-
man ‘presents himself’ to the electorate. Distinction among these terms is cer-
tainly more subtle than merely noting that Eskimos have as many words for
snow as the Arabs have for camels. However, it wil require a considerable
collection of examples before a systematic analysis wil be possible,’4
Finally a word on the role of sampling surveys in macrosociological work.
Section I stressed that the marginal distribution of answers to a single question
is only a starting point for survey analysis. To make a single survey significant,
elaborate cross-tabulation between answers to different questions and their
relation to background data is indispensable. In the context of the present
discussion, a few marginal distributions can provide an important cue. Eckstein
showed that Norwegians are more ready to trust their compatriots; Lipset’s
evidence that white collar jobs are not prestigeous in the United States, and
Dahrendorf’s reference to the importance of family sentiments in Germany are
good examples.
The preceding discussion of how macrosociological variates are formed in-
cluded examples of the kind of propositions into which they enter. It wil
round out the whole picture if I parallel each of the four cases just described with
supplementary examples.
Macrosociological propositions
Eckstein’s study was concerned with the stability of a social system. This time-
honoured sociological topic has in recent years been an object of controversy.
Authors like Coser request more attention to the study of conflict,’s and this
has penetrated macrosociological work through another set of variates, usually
called contradiction. A good example is Eisenstadt’s study of what he calls histor-
ical centralized bureaucratic empires, like medieval China and the Ottoman
Empire. He sees them as systems better organized than the feudal states but
less differentiated than modern industrial countries. Unless they can develop