Ideology and Social Control

Because of the abiding concern with conflict among students of intergroup relations, questions have tended to hinge on the issue of whether one group is using force to subjugate another, with all the attendant ideological trappings of hostility and derogation. But dominant groups may be playing a different game. If their energies are geared toward the prevention or containment of conflict, social control may rarely be reduced to the use or even the explicit threat of force. The question of whether subordinates’ position in the relationship reflects their own volition or forced compliance is a false question, unless we are