Théorie du conflit

The reform of French President Emmanuel Macron on the carbon tax has led to a series of protests in France. The President’s decision to “mechanically apply an increase in taxation on fuel” ^[1] was in my opinion an illustration of the conflict theory.

Indeed, the people who use their cars the most in France are people with low incomes who use this means of transportation to get to their place of work. The most disadvantaged often do not have the means to live in the metropolises where their work is located and must therefore commute to work. Hence, increasing the price of gasoline was far too drastic, using up a considerable part of their budget. This underlines an essential aspect of the conflict theory: those with wealth and power try to hold on to it by any means possible, chiefly by suppressing the poor and powerless. Furthermore, in my opinion the President was aware that this new law would have almost no impact on the rich but would considerably penalize the less fortunate. 

Conflict theory holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity. However, in order to be listened to by the President of the Republic, the French had to resort to violence and to a large number of protests over the course of several months. A very violent reaction of the French forces of order followed, illustrating therefore that social harmony was maintained by physical domination.

This highlight the concept of minority groups defined by the sociologist Louis Wirth as he described them as “differential” and receiving “unequal treatment” ^[2]. Indeed, the dominant group is that which holds the most power in a given society, while subordinate groups (in this case the less fortunate) are those who lack power compared to the dominant group.

[1] https://www.lci.fr/politique/taxe-carbone-emmanuel-macron-pour-une-fiscalite-flottante-liee-aux-cours-mondiaux-2114072.html

[2] Little (2016), section 11.1-11.3

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