Types of social institutions and their functions

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In a society there are many institutions that regulate the behavior and activities of people.Types of social institutions are very diverse.You can classify them on the basis of different criteria - for example, in the spheres of action.In this case, you can select the following types of social institutions: the economic, political and ideological, cultural and educational, social.

Economic, including the institution of property, money, financial system, economic associations of various types, designed to promote the production and distribution of the social product, regulate the circulation of money.

political and ideological, structural institutions including the presidency of the State Duma, the government, the courts, prosecutors, the army, the security forces, linked with the establishment and maintenance of power, production, preservation and reproduction of ideological principles.

cultural and educational institutions, which include science, education, family, religion, and various arts organizations associated with the production and reproduction of cultural and spiritual values.Promote the socialization of individuals.

Public institutions, including all kinds of voluntary associations of citizens, regulate and organize the daily social life of people, interpersonal and intergroup relations.

This basic social institutions, types and forms are quite varied.

There are also other criteria for the typology.If the base of the classification method to take control of people's behavior, we can distinguish the formal and informal types of social institutions.

Formal their activities are based on the writing and execution of the laws, regulations, decrees, regulations, through which the managerial and supervisory functions.They base their activity on sanctions related to rewards and punishments.These include government, army, school.Informal institutions are not precisely defined regulatory framework, the interaction they do not formalized, but is determined by the social creativity and the will of the citizens.Controlling them is set by the regulations, which are fixed in the public mind, opinions, customs, traditions.These include a variety of associations with the same interests, cultural foundations and others.

We now consider the types and functions of social institutions, the most common of them.The regulatory function, for example, is to resolve with the help of standards, certain rules, rewards and punishments behavior and activities of people.At public institutions, there is also the purpose of reproduction of social relations, which are transmitted through experience, norms, values, culture from one generation to another.Another function - integrative, which consists in the fact that it brings together aspirations, actions, attitudes of individuals, which ensures social stability.The next role - communicative, which is aimed at maintaining links, communication, interaction.

addition to the above, the social institutions have a number of specific economic, administrative, political and other functions: explicit (formal), which is usually understood people and written in the regulations, and the latent (hidden), which are not declaredbut actually executed.

If you do not comply with certain conditions conducive to maintaining the functionality of the institutions, they can become dysfunctional, that is, their work may malfunction, violation of destabilizing society.

Thus, we examined the main types of social institutions and their most important functions.