SYSTEM AND CONFLICT - TOWARD A SYMBIOTIC RECONCILIATION

The systems and conflict approaches are often viewed as incompatible, if not contradictory. While the former emphasizes system integration, consensus, and harmony, the latter connotes lack of consensus, and per haps even system dissolution. This paper shows that rather than being contradictory, consensus and conflict are in fact complementary in som e ways. Further, they can coexist simultaneously within a system. Ever y system has, at a given time, some level of both consensus and confli ct (although one or the other may be very low, it is still probably ab ove zero). While functionalists have long viewed system integration as ''functional'' and conflict as ''dysfunctional,'' we also see conflic t as ''functional,'' as it combats lethargy and obsolescence, and spur s needed change and growth. However? while both conflict and integrati on coexist in a system, their interrelationship is complex, and someti mes very difficult to analyze. This paper demonstrates the complementa ry of system integration and conflict through explication of the simul taneous interrelationships of three analytical models: the global-muta ble-immutable distinction, the three-level model, and the Q-R distinct ion. Through this analysis we show that integration and conflict not o nly are complementary, but are in fact symbiotic, and need each other.