robert k. merton as postwar prophet

R o b e r t K. M e r t o n a s P o s t w a r P r o p h e t

G a r y D e a n J a w o r s k i

Within the context o f a discussion o f Robert K. Merton's ideas on leadership in postwar Amer- ica, the article examines the nature and impact o f Merton "s "soctological parables. " This term refers to short tales f r o m social life f r o m which sociological lessons with moral implications can be drawn. These parables, such as the bank in.~olvenc~F story told in "'lhe Self Fulfilling Proph- e~y, " illustrate the manner in which Merton merged moral and sociological messages in hL~ writing& Suggestions are made along the lines that these parables, or at least the moral messages they contain, contributed to Merlon ~ postwar fame.

I.

On the eve of American involvement in the Second World War, Edward AI- swor th Ross, the sociologist and moralist of the Progressive era, publ ished a dou r lament on "The Post-War Intellectual Climate" (Ross 1945). Spun into the vert igo of despair, Ross offered a pessimistic portrai t of a th inker w i thou t firm intel lectual or moral guidance. "Much once bli thely assumed we shall no longer dare to take for granted," Ross prophes ied . "Thousands of treatises, till lately held authori tat ive, will be left to gather dust!" (p. 648). Grant ing the moral su- per ior i ty o f the Sermon on the Mount, Ross ques t ioned the relevance o f such a guide and conc luded , "The Gospels give us no clear directive" (p. 649). The penul t imate paragraph of Ross's lament cont inues this idea. "No June wea the r in the hearts of the wise till this war lies years in the Past. In the coming Novem- ber chill no one will chant , 'God 's in His Heaven, Ali's right wi th the wor ld ' " (p. 650). As if in recogni t ion of his own impending obsolescence , Ross announced , "From the West ' s roster of intellectual leaders will be s tr icken many a promi- nent name" (p. 648).

Gary Dean Jaworski is an assistant professor of sociology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham- Madison campus. His most recent publications arc "Simmcl's Contribution to Parsons' Action "l'hcor 3' and Its Fate," in Michael Kacrn, cd. Georg S imme l a n d Contempory Sociology (Kluwer, 1990); and "Robert K. Mcrton's Extension ofSimmcl 's Ubersehbar" in Sociological Theory, Spring 19~). Address all cor respondence to Department of Social Sciences, Fairlcigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ 07960.

J a w o r s k i 209

Ross's essay signaled the end of one era and the beginning of another. The old Progressive faith in progress, Christian kindness and human perfectibility were irremediably destroyed. New moral and intellectual guides were necessary if intellectual life were to continue. It was within this climate that sociological functionalism rose to prominence. Robert K. Merton took Ross's place as intellectual and moral guide to sociologists in the postwar era. Merton's intellectual p rominence during the postwar period is well established (cf. Westie 1973). But I will show within an analysis of Merton's ideas on leadership how Merton acted also as moral guide to the postwar generation of sociologists.

Merton's moral guidance took the form of sociological parables, short tales from social life from which sociological lessons with moral implications could be drawn. Merton's most famous sociological parable, perhaps, is the bank insolvency story told in his popular essay, "The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy," first published in the A n t i o c h R e v i e w (Merton [ 1948] 1957). Briefly stated, the story reveals that "a rumor of insolvency, once believed by enough depositors, would result in the insolvency of the bank" (p. 422). In his essay Merton gener- alizes the parable of the bank to the problem of race relations and demonstrates "the perversities of social logic" (p. 423) unchecked by institutional control. The "tragic circle of fear, social disaster, and reinforced fear" (p. 436) would be broken only if Merton's hardheaded advice for institutional and administrative change was adopted. In his postwar writings Merton offered other sociological parables which warned of what might happen without "expert" guidance of society. Like the Old Testament prophets, Merton's moral lessons were told in the form of warnings.

II.

Among those problems on which Merton was working in the postwar years and which his writings on leadership at tempt to resolve are: (1) the problem of communicat ing the "will" of the people to the leaders; and (2) the problem of providing feedback to leaders. Within the context of a discussion of these issues, Merton admonished his readers to r emember the "fate of many groups which fell apart" (Merton 1957, p. 341) and warned of the consequences for postwar America if it failed to successfully resolve these two problems of leadership.

Interest in the first of these problems was institutionalized in a research tradition developed at the Columbia University Bureau of Applied Social Research which focused on "the communicat ions from audiences directed to those who [were] dependen t on having an audience" (Merton 1957, p. 354, n.94). Starting with the investigation of fan mail directed to radio personalities (Sayre 1939), the studies turned to analyses of the mail directed to political leaders (Herzog and Wyant 1941; Sussmann 1956) and the effectiveness of public opinion polls (Merton and Hart 1949). This research tradition gained renewed significance w h e n Merton confronted the problems of leadership in the cold war era.

210 The American Sociologist/Fall 1990

Merton saw a two-fold s ignif icance for the sub jec t o f c o m m u n i c a t i o n f rom pub l ic to poli t ical leaders. First, fo l lowing the v i ews of Ches te r I. Barnard ([1938] 1968) and George Homans (1946; 1950), Mer ton he ld that the authority of leaders is con t ingen t on the degree to w h i c h their pol ic ies c o n f o r m to the no rms of those t hey lead. If o rders fit the no rms and sen t imen t s of the group , t hey are m o r e likely to be fo l lowed. If the orders depar t significantly f rom the no rms o f the group , "orders will not be fo l lowed, o r f o l l owed only u n d e r du- ress, w i th the result that the once legit imate author i ty b e c o m e s progress ive ly c o n v e r t e d into the exerc i se of 'naked p o w e r ' " (Mer ton 1957, p. 340). If post- w a r leaders are to exerc i se their p o w e r legit imately and effect ively then, they must have "substantial k n o w l e d g e of these norms." Indeed , leaders must have "a grea te r k n o w l e d g e than that held by o the r individual m e m b e r s of the group" (p. 340). 1 An examina t ion o f the historical r eco rd reveals th ree m e t h o d s political leaders have used to acquire this k n o w l e d g e (see Mer ton 1963). They have used informants, such as editorialists; informers, such as spies; and respondents, such as p e o p l e w h o re spond to publ ic op in ion polls. The informat ion y ie lded f rom informants , w h o are engaged in " impress ionis t ic research" (Mer- ton 1963, p. xx), and f rom informers, w h o are engaged in espionage , is clearly inferior to that p rov ided by respondents . Informat ion from r e s p o n d e n t s takes t w o general forms. R e s p o n d e n t s may express their v i ews spontaneous ly , as w h e n they wr i t e to those in pos i t ions of authority. This form has the value of keep ing holders of author i ty in immedia te con tac t wi th the relatively unmedi- a ted v iews of their cons t i tuenc ies . The defici ts o f mass mail include the irregu- lar and nonsys temat i c nature of the informat ion rece ived. The o t h e r form of informat ion f rom r e s p o n d e n t s is found in the publ ic op in ion poll. The obv ious value of polls is that t hey offer substantial and conven ien t ly packaged informa- t ion f rom represen ta t ive samples of the public. W h e n Mer ton wr i t e s that the "social organizat ion must p rov ide the mach ine ry w h i c h will enab le this informat ion to c o m e to the a t tent ion of the appropr ia te authori ta t ive strata" (Mer- ton 1957, p. 355), there is little ques t ion w h i c h of the three forms the social scient is t favors.

A sociological parable gives Mer ton ' s p r e f e r e n c e grea te r weight . Cons ide r a s i tuat ion in w h i c h a polit ical leader rece ives a large amoun t of informat ion f rom the publ ic , bu t that informat ion is no t systematical ly and conven ien t ly pre- sen ted to the leader. In o the r words , imagine a si tuation wi th an "absence of social mach ine ry for de tec t ing the impor t o f large vo l umes of messages" (Mer ton 1957, p. 356). The result ing "excess of messages" may result in c i r cums tances that th rea ten ef fec t ive and stable authori ty, such as confus ion and poli t ical de- cision making un in fo rmed by publ ic opinion. Mer ton ' s parable of excess messages c o m e s from a p rob l em faced by Abraham Lincoln, as told by Carl Sandburg:

The first few months of Lincoln's administration...he read each paper carefully through, remarking, "I never sign a document I have not first read." Later: "Won't you

Jaworski 211

read these papers to me?" Still later: he requests merely" a synopsis of the contents." And, in the fourth year of his incumbency: his most frequent response was: ~Show me where you want my name." (Merton 1957, p. 356)

The sociological implication of this s tory- tha t of the functional importance of some structural mechanism for communicat ing to leaders the opinions of the led--lends weight to the moral lesson of the story. Namely, that those who support the type of information opinion polls supply to leaders are also sup- porting the survival of American society and the democrat ic values it fosters. Given the cold war context of this message, there can be little question about the value Merton placed on pollsters and other such experts for the survival of democracy.

Apart f rom its importance as a device fulfilling a requirement of effective authority, information from respondents has a second and, perhaps, greater significance in Merton's work. Merton believed that mass mail and public opinion polls provided the opportuni ty for participatory democracy in American society. In Merton's functionalist jargon, mass mail and public opinion polls provide the "functional equivalent" of, respectively, an episodic and a continuing plebiscite (Merton 1957, p. 356; 1963, p. xv). With these ideas Merton extends to the postwar era Weber 's view of the plebiscitarian leader. According to Weber, plebiscitarian leadership is a form of charismatic domination within a bureaucratic structure where in the legitimacy of the leader derives from 'rec- ognition by the ruled'. "The leader (demagogue) rules, in fact, by virtue of the devotion of his followers and their faith in him as a person" (quoted in Mommsen 1989, p. 102). But, while Weber believed plebiscitarian democracy was the most significant form of democrat ic leadership, he also believed it "can be realized only incompletely, because of the constant changes in the situation and the continual emergence of unforseen problems" (Weber 1978, p. 243). The public opinion poll, developed after Weber's death, promised to make the "voice of the people" a regular part of the governing process. Merton's appar- ent faith in opinion polls perhaps explains why, unlike others w h o came to political age in the Progressive thirties, and who in the changed atmosphere of the fifties abandoned their faith in participatory democracy (cf. Morton 1972; Noble 1989), Merton retained his Progressive beliefs.

Merton's list of presidents at tuned to the voice of the people includes a long line of democrat ic heroes, including Jefferson, Lincoln, and the great Progres- sive, democrat ic presidents, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Merton 1963, pp. xiii-xiv). Of these presidents special praise is reserved for FDR, the New Deal president who regularly "call[ed] upon the people to help him govern" (Merton 1963, p. xv). Merton was mindful of the dangers of participatory democracy, but its evils were not inherent i:l the people, Merton believed; rather, the danger resided in the misuse of the techniques of the plebiscite by populist demagogues, such as Senator Joseph McCarthy (Merton 1963, p. xvi).

212 The American Sociologist/FaU 1990

III.

Imagine "a ho r r endous society in w h i c h all deviat ions f rom social no rms w e r e p romp t ly de tec ted , and t h e r e u p o n pun i shed" (Merton 1957, p. 345). With these words Merton invites his readers to imagine the collapse o f liberal democra t i c society. He asks t hem to con templa t e a society in w h i c h the liberal values o f to le rance and pr ivacy w e r e lacking and aids the i r imaginat ion by dis- cussing the " te lescreens" of Orwell ' s Nineteen Eighty-four and the "silent mon- itor" of Robert O w e n ' s New Lanark. But, whi le they aren ' t men t ioned , the House Un-American Activities Commi t t ee hearings, FBI invest igat ions and State Depa r tmen t in terrogator ies of the McCarthy era were closer an teceden t s to the situatio!l Merton was contempla t ing . Distancing the issue f rom c o n t e m p o r a r y realities even further , Merton quotes an extensive passage f rom "On Being Found Out," an essay by the Victorian writer , William Makepeace Thackeray. x

Just picture to yourself every body who does wrong being found out, and punished accordingly. Fancy all the boys in all the schools being whipped; and then the assis- tants, and then the headmaster....Fancy the provost-marshall being tied up, having previously superintended the correction of the whole army .... After the clergyman has cried his peccavi, suppose we hoist up a bishop, and give him a couple of dozen .... After we have cast off the bishop, what are we to say to the Minister who appointed him? The butchery is too horrible. The hand drops powerless, appalled at the quantity of birch it must cut and brandish. (Merton 1957, p. 345)

Such pract ices, Merton contends , wou ld result in a Hobbes ian state of nature, "a war, as is o f every man, against every man" (p. 344); in o the r words , they w o u l d "conver t a socie ty into a jungle" (p. 345).

The tale Merton is here telling, wha t could be called "the parable of the jungle, " is in essence a fo rewarn ing of the collapse o f liberal socie ty should certain pos twar t rends cont inue . In addit ion to the events already men t ioned , beh ind the parable lie the pervasive intolerance of n o n c o n f o r m i t y and c o n s e q u e n t threat to civil liberties, such as were descr ibed by Samuel A. Stouffer in Com- munism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties (1955). The moral lessons o f the parable are easily discernible despi te the mant le of social scientific object ivi ty and structural funct ional is t jargon. Terms such as "the social func t ion of permissive- ness" and "the band of inst i tut ional ized evasion" barely shield w h a t was in effect an ind ic tmen t of the pos twar climate of confo rmi ty and intolerance.

At the same t ime that Merton assailed certain intrusions into personal privacy as harmful to social order , o the r intrusions were v indica ted as necessary to that same order. Two in part icular stand out. First, the necess i ty o f social scientists to s tudy h u m a n subjects requires ingress into their lives. But, Merton assured, liberal d e m o c r a c y was not th rea tened by this requi rement . Indeed, the regions of life into w h i c h social scientists must en ter "can be safely enlarged" (p. 346) w i t h o u t unnecessa ry harm. This is because like o the r professionals social scien-

Jaworski 213

tists have instituted certain "countervailing mechanisms," such as privileged communicat ions and confidentiality, which protect their clients. Second, political leaders and others in positions of authority have broader surveillance op- portunit ies and rights than do "the run of others in the group" (p. 346). To the extent that this is true, Merton implies, it reflects a functional requirement of society. In Merton's functionalist language, "differentials in visibility are not merely givens or 'happenstances ' ; they are resultants of functional require- ments being met by the structure of the group and by the norms which support that structure" (p. 346). These broader surveillance opportuni t ies and rights of leaders provide the feedback necessary to review policy implementation and revise policy if needed. Deliberately introduced devices such as morale surveys and statistical performance measures provide for more effective control and social coordination. Unlike the extremists w ho threatened the values and order of liberal democracy, the social scientists and leaders with their centrist policies we re benign servants of the social order.

IV.

Merton's ideas on leadership are at once an affirmation of faith in the rational control of society and an expression of fear in the possibility of societal collapse. These features of his thought form the two poles of Merton's appeal in the pos twar period: as social science expert and postwar moralist, as servant of p o w e r and prophe t of a second Fall.

Recent studies of Merton's sociology have sought to identify the appeal of his work on one side of this dimension: in the sophistication and soundness of his general theory (St inchcombe 1975; Crothers 1987), and in the thematic deep structure of his work (Sztompka 1986). From the point of view expressed here these perspectives, if valid, are incomplete. They rely on a rationalist account of theoretical reception that gives inadequate weight to moral and metaphysical pathos (Lovejoy [1936] 1964) when studying the diverse fates of social theory. My view is closer to that expressed by Randall Collins ([1977] 1981) who argues that Merton's appeal followed, in part, from the fit of his ideas with postwar liberal sensibilities. But in addition to the fit of Merton's ideas with the pre- vailing political sympathies of postwar sociologists, I propose those ideas touched as well a responsive moral and metaphysical cord. A people existen- tially familiar with the possibility of debacle and defeat are susceptible to Merton's emphasis on control and warnings of collapse.

Without denying the intellectual profundity of Merton's work or the relevance of his ideas to contemporary sociology, it is nevertheless the view ad- vanced here that a balanced approach to Merton's appeal must give due weight to this neglected side of his reception. Merton filled a prophet ic function in pos twar sociology, offering warnings of societal collapse and hope in the prov- idential workings of the social system, fine tuned by social science expertise. The "parable of the bank," the "parable of excess messages," "parable of the


jungle," and reminder of the "fate of many groups which fell apart" provided moral lessons in the form of warnings. This prophetic stance appealed to many postwar intellectuals, whether because it was consistent with their Jewish her- itage, their wartime experiences , or with the lessons o f conventional morality in general. The relative decline in the appeal o f Merton's work in America today is explained in part by the changed composi t ion o f the sociological profession, for example the entrance of cohorts experientially unfamiliar with societal collapse, and the altered moral climate. 3

Those w h o s e goal it is to shore up and make more appealing to n e w genera- tions o f sociologists the theoretical apparatus of Robert K. Merton have a diffi- cult task ahead of them. For the kindly ministers o f communit ies of the heart have a wide fol lowing, and the Mertonian prophets with their "thoughts that breathe and words that burn" must wait in the wings for their turn to preach.

N o t e s The author thanks Arthur L. St inchcombe for his wise suggestions and accepts full responsibility for any remaining CITOrs .

1. For a study of the relationship be tween these concerns and Merton's revisit to Georg Simmel's writings, see Jaworski (1990).

2. While Morton felt that Thackeray's schoolboy imagery was limiting (Merton 1957, p. 345), we believe the passage portrays in concise allegorical form one of the dilemmas of the academy during the McCarthy era, vis, who is ultimately responsible for the alleged Communis t infiltration of the university?

3. A recent study of Merton reports that "much of Merton's work has recently fallen into disrepair through disuse and neglect" (Crothers 1987, p. 155)�9 The great transformations around the globe in the late 1980s perhaps explains why recent books on Melton come to the United States via Poland (Sztompka 1986), England (Ion Clark et al. 1990), and New Zealand (Crothers 1987). That is, Merton's work has found an ~electivc al~'mity" to those whose sensibilities are shaped by the major societal disruptions abroad.

References

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�9 1963. "Introduction." Pp. xi i i-xxv in Dear FDR: A Study of Political Letter-Writing by Lefla Sussmann. Totowa, N.J.:The Bedminster Press.

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J a w o r s k i 215

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can Soctologlsr 8:19-32.

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robert k. merton as postwar prophet

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