SOCIAL

INSTITUTIONS
CHAPTER 6

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS 1ST SEMESTER

 INTRODUCTION
What are Social Institutions?

Social institutions refer to organized sets of elements such as beliefs,

rules, practices, and relationships that exist to attain social order. It also
refers to well-established and structured relationships between groups of
people that are considered fundamental components of a society's
culture.
 THE APPROACHES

The institutional approach tells us that social institutions are ordered sets of rules,
norms, beliefs, or values that organize human behavior.

The relational approach meanwhile, focuses on social relations rather than rules,
norms, beliefs, or values. Nevertheless, it is possible to consider both approaches
and look into both the organized sets of elements as well as social relations when
analyzing social institutions.
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

The family, economy, education, health,

religion, and other nonstate institutions are
the primary examples of social institutions.
They differ from political institutions under
the state.
 THE FAMILY, MARRIAGE,
AND KINSHIP

The family is a group of people who are related by birth, marriage, and a
shared residence. There are several kinds of families. Nuclear families are
families that are composed of parents and children. Extended families are
those that are composed of the nuclear family and other relatives such as
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Reconstituted families are
composed of the spouses and their children from a previous marriage.
 KINSHIP
The family is also the basis for kinship, which is a social structure defined by
relations among individuals linked by blood or marriage ties. Kinship has
been found to have a significant influence in definining the social status of
individuals in many societies. In the Philippines, for example, many of the
noted personalities in politics trace their lineage to families who have held
political power and social influence for many years in their respective
communities.
 KINSHIP
Kinship ties based on descent can be either matrilineal, patrilineal, or
bilineal. Matrilineal kinship means that one's descent is based on the female
line. Patrilineal kinship, on the contrary, means that one's descent is based on
the male line. Bilineal kinship refers to a descent system based on both the
male and female lines. Kinship ties can also be based on marriage or the
formally recognized union of a man and a woman.
 MARRIAGES
Marriages can either be monogamous or polygamous.
Moreover, marriage is culture-specific. For most Christian societies, for example,
marriage is monogamous which means that a spouse cannot have more than one
spouse. Among Islamic societies, in contrast, marriage can be polygamous which
means that a person can have more than one spouse. The type of polygamy among
Muslims is called polygyny, that is, a husband could take many wives. Another type
of polygamy is called polyandry where a wife can have many husbands.
 THE ECONOMY
According to liberal economists, the
answers to the important questions
regarding the resources of the society
should be determined by the market. The
market, according to Adam Smith, is a self-
regulating mechanism.
 THE ECONOMY
Socialists, on the contrary, have a different point of view regarding the economy.
They believe that the bourgeoisie or the social class that largely controls the means of
production would have an overwhelming control over the free-market economy.
According to them, only the bourgeoisie benefits from the free market system. The
bourgeoisie is made up of those who are involved in the financial sector like bankers,
industrialists, and owners of corporations.
 THE ECONOMY
They comprise the minority of society and Karl Marx argued that wealth is
concentrated on the few. It is for this reason that socialists like Marx and Friedrich
Engels argued that the market and the state should be under the control of the
proletariat or the laborers. The free market system for Marx has alienated the
proletariat since they do not have the capital or resources to thrive in it unlike the
bourgeoisie. Private property, which is concentrated on the bourgeoisie, should be
abolished and must be under the direction of the state to promote equal distribution
of economic resources according to the needs of the people regardless of class.
 THE ECONOMY
Market failures refer to cases when the market becomes inefficient due to
imperfect competition, imperfect information, imperfect mobility, and the
like. In such cases, the government should be allowed to intervene in the
economy to resolve such issues. An example of a government intervention
is the regulation of companies that already control a sizeable part of the
market resulting in effective monopoly. Another example is the increase in
government spending in times of recession.
 EDUCATIONAL & HEALTH
INSTITUTIONS

Educational institutions like schools do not only ensure a literate population;

they also transmit culture. The beliefs, norms, values, and practices of a society
are taught in classrooms. As such, schools and teachers are agents of
socialization.

Health institutions, meanwhile, are primarily established to ensure public health

and to provide universal health services. There are different kinds of health
systems.
 RELIGION
Religion is an institution that involves a set of beliefs and practices of
a particular social group. The beliefs of religious groups affect the
behavior of their members. It is important therefore to know how the
beliefs of a religion affect the actions of its members. Religion may be
organized into a group that has universal membership called a church
or it could also be organized into an exclusive group called a sect.
 RELIGION
Religions can be further classified into monotheistic or polytheistic
religions. Monotheism refers to religions that believe in only one god,
while polytheistic religions believe in many gods. Christianity, Judaism,
and Islam are examples of monotheistic religions, while Hinduism is a
polytheistic religion. Animism, meanwhile, is not considered a religion but
rather a belief system that holds that both animate and inanimate things
have a spiritual essence.
REVIEW