“Critically examine how Durkheim and Merton explicate Anomie.” (2022)
Anomie means a condition in which norms fail to regulate conduct. Émile Durkheim introduced it to diagnose the moral disorder of industrial society. Robert K. Merton reworked it into a theory of how social structure itself produces deviance.
Durkheim: anomie as deregulation
- The Division of Labour in Society (1893): the anomic division of labour arises when rapid industrial growth outpaces the moral rules governing relations between employers and workers, producing crises and class conflict.
- Suicide (1897): human desires are insatiable unless limited by society. When crises of boom or bust disrupt the scale of expectations, regulation collapses and anomic suicide rises. He also noted domestic anomie after divorce.
- Nature and remedy: anomie is an abnormal, transitional pathology. The cure lies in occupational associations and moral education that restore limits.
Merton: anomie as structural strain
In “Social Structure and Anomie” (1938), Merton located anomie in a gap between culturally prescribed goals (monetary success in the “American Dream”) and institutionalised means that are unequally available. Pressure is greatest on the lower strata. Individuals adapt in five ways:
| Mode | Goals | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conformity | Accept | Accept | Salaried striver |
| Innovation | Accept | Reject | Fraud, organised crime |
| Ritualism | Reject | Accept | Rule-bound clerk |
| Retreatism | Reject | Reject | Addict, vagrant |
| Rebellion | Replace | Replace | Revolutionary |
The two compared
- Source: for Durkheim, a lack of regulation in times of change; for Merton, a stable feature of a society that exalts goals but restricts means.
- Desires: Durkheim sees them as naturally limitless; Merton sees them as culturally induced.
- Outcome: Durkheim studied suicide and industrial conflict; Merton explained a range of deviance, linked to class position.
Critical examination
- Albert K. Cohen (Delinquent Boys, 1955): Merton cannot explain non-utilitarian delinquency like vandalism, which arises from status frustration in subcultures.
- Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin (Delinquency and Opportunity, 1960): illegitimate means are also unequally distributed, producing criminal, conflict and retreatist subcultures.
- Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld (Crime and the American Dream, 1994): institutional anomie results when the economy dominates family, education and polity.
- Robert Agnew (general strain theory, 1992): strain also comes from losing valued things and from negative treatment, not only blocked goals.
- Labelling and Marxist critics: both thinkers take official crime data and a value consensus for granted, ignoring who defines deviance. Durkheim is also faulted for treating inequality as a moral rather than power problem, though his “forced division of labour” partly answers this.
Indian illustration
India’s aspiration boom fits both. Merton’s innovation shows in organised exam fraud: the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 was brought into force in June 2024 amid the NEET-UG paper-leak controversy, with heavy penalties for leak rackets. Ritualism marks rule-bound bureaucracy. Durkheim’s deregulation appears where migrants leave village and caste controls behind for insecure urban work.
Conclusion
Durkheim explains why modern societies lose moral limits; Merton explains why the loss falls unevenly across the class structure. Together, and with the refinements of strain and institutional anomie theories, they remain powerful tools for societies where aspiration grows faster than legitimate opportunity.