Trump And Structural Functionalism Analysis

Shortly after the 2016 election, President Trump signed an executive order on January 27 suspending refugee admissions from seven countries for 90 days. These countries included Iran, Iraq (which was later removed momentarily), Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Immediately following the executive order, many district courts appealed the order for they felt it was unconstitutional. States have argued that the executive order has violated, The Immigration and Neutrality Acts and was motivated by a discriminatory animus (McCarthy). Not only has the order produced many appeals, it has also created a large amount of protests outside airports and major cities including the Capital (Newman). On the other side of the issue, President Trump and …show more content…
Functionalism construes each individual part of society and how it functions to contribute to harmony and stability of a whole society. Emile Durkheim, a French Sociologist, presented this theory of Functionalism through an analogy of a human organism, making him a principal founder of modern sociology (Carls). He related certain parts of the human body to social institutions. Conley shows how Durkheim compared each major organism to a part of society; the government to the brain, industry to the muscular system, and media to the nervous system (29). Functionalism however, has been criticized by many sociologist though, for it presents negative suggestions on social order. One critic would be Antonio Gramsci. He was an Italian journalist that made contributions to Marxist Theory in which he focused on political and cultural elements of power (Cole). Overall, functionalism is a macro-level of social structure working together as a whole rather than micro-level sociology in which it’s more based upon a person’s assumptions such as the theory of symbolic interactionism …show more content…
This theory relies upon the symbolic meaning people develop due to interactions with one another. Conley states that when people act on a perception, as a result, collectively make their meaning so (31). This theory demonstrates how humans develop different symbols that consequently adds meaning to the world in their viewpoint. The meanings are then molded from interactions within society (Symbolic Interactionism Theory). Herbert Blummer suggest that there are three core principles of this theory; meaning, thought, and language. Blummer suggest that people act the way they do based upon a meaning they have been given. Language helps create meaning to everything for it has a name. Finally, Blummer describes that thought implies interpretations that we have formed from these symbols (Symbolic Interactionism