The Inverse Force Rule: Social Change in Long-term Context

Melvyn L. Fein, Kennesaw State University

Abstract

Predicting the future is fraught with difficulties. Most prognosticators, including sociologists, get it wrong. Many, including Marx, Comte, Morgan, Spencer, Durkheim, Lenski and Hochschild, have tried. Nonetheless all leave out crucial factors in explaining the direction of social change. The inverse force rule, which embraces personal relations, hierarchical arrangements, social norms, social exchange, knowledge, technology, and social roles, seeks to be more comprehensive. It asserts that the larger the society the less emotionally intense the forces holding it together, and vice versa. This rule is then explicated in historical operation. Finally, based upon these trends, it is predicted that techno-commercial societies are destined to become more decentralized. More specifically, professionalized roles, occupied by self-motivated experts, are likely to form the basis of future social solidarity.