Robert K. Merton has contributed significantly to the codification and systematisation of functional analysis. Merton reviewed the essential postulates in functional analysis and criticised and modified them as follows:
1. Postulate of the Functional Unity of Society:
According to this postulate, any part of the social system is functional for the entire system. All parts of society are seen’ to work together for the maintenance and Integration of society as a whole. For example, Radcliffe-Brown speaks of the contribution of particular social usages to the total social life-of the total social system’, and Malinowski, going one step further, argues that usages are functional ‘for culture as a whole, indirectly therefore for the biological and mental welfare of each individual member’, Merton question this assumption and argues that particularly in complex, highly differentiated societies, this ‘functional unity’ is doubtful. He provides the example of religious pluralism to illustrate this point. In a society with a variety of faiths, religion may tend to divide rather than unite.
2. Postulates of Universal Functionalism:
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This postulate assumes that ‘all standardised social or cultural forma have positive functions’. 19th century anthropologists, for example, assumed that every continuing social pattern or custom must have positive functions contributing to the maintenance of the system and dubbed as ‘survivals’ any pattern whose functions could not be readily identified.
3. Postulate of Indispensability:
This assumption states that certain institutions or social arrangements are indispensable to society. Functionalists have often seen religion in this light. For example, Davis and Moore claim that religion ‘plays a unique and indispensable part in society’. Merton questions the assumption of indispensability arguing that the same functional prerequisites may be met by a range of alternative institutions. From this point of view a political ideology such as communism can provide a functional alternative to religion. However, Merton is still left with the problem of actually identifying functional prerequisites.
Merton argues that these three postulates are little more than articles of faith. They are matters for investigation and should not form prior assumptions. Merton claims that his framework for functionalist analysis removes the charge that functionalism is ideologically based. He argues that the parts of society should be analysed in terms of their ‘effects’ or ‘consequences’ on society. Since these effects can be functional, dysfunctional or non-functional, Merton claims that the value judgement present in the assumption that all parts of the system are functional is therefore removed.