R. Dahrendorf expressed another view considering as the basis for conflicts such political factors as struggle for power, prestige, and authority. To his mind, conflict may emerge in all social groups and communities where there are relations of domination and submission. But in this conception the factor of consciousness plays a leading role as a person must realize his position, compare it with the other participant's position and form directions to struggle for power, authority, prestige etc.

Modern conflict theory is based on the following four primary assumptions:

1. Competition. Competition over scarce resources (money, leisure, sexual partners etc) is at the heart of all social relations. Competition rather than consensus is characteristic of human relations.

2. Structural inequality. Inequalities in power and reward are built into all social structures. Individuals and groups that benefit from any particular structure strive to see it maintained.

3. Revolution. Change occurs as a result of conflict between competing interests rather than through adaptation. It is often abrupt and revolutionary rather than evolutionary.

4. War as the extreme form of conflict. Even war is a unifier of the societies involved, as well as war may set an end to whole societies.

As in any structure there is always a reason for a conflict situation to appear, world community would have to be in a permanent state of “war”. To avoid social conflicts systems of social, cultural and legal norms regulating interactions are created, both the forms of expressing disagreement and levels of tolerance in social relations being settled. In international relations such are diplomatic notes of protest against some violation in the relations between the states, economic embargo etc.

There are various methods to avoid acute forms of social conflicts. The first constructive method is deviation from the conflict interaction, excluding demonstration of one's own success, advantages, benefits etc. in order to humiliate the partner so that he isn't able to resist. Another often applied method of settling conflicts is of opposite character - it is coercion which turns to military affairs with making use of military forces when interethnic and interstate contradictions become sharp. Former Yugoslavia is an example. Other constructive methods to settle a conflict are as follows: compromise when agreement is achieved by making mutual concessions; negotiations implying that mutual benefit is found after existing differences are accepted and shared by both parties. In interethnic and interstate conflict an effective method is trying mediation - applying to the third party or mediator who is not directly involved in the conflict so as to cease fighting and start cooperating. The mediator remains neutral and helps the parties to work out what they think would be the best solution. When disputing parties fail to reach a settlement through mediation, arbitration or court is the last resort for them to settle a conflict. Arbitration is a number of procedures of conciliatory character exercised by formally authorized establishments or agencies such as labour courts.

Although conflicts are impossible to avoid, one should keep in mind the methods which enable to turn hostile antagonisms of interests into a constructive way and settle them for the common good.

Peculiarities of social interaction in a transitive society

In the history of our country the 1990s were marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, emergence of independent states which started cardinal reforms aimed at qualitative transformation of the society. Such reforms, however, were of a complicated and contradicting character. The society happened to be in a deep structural crisis which embraced all spheres of social life: political, economic, spiritual etc.

A transfer to a market entailed changes in the employment structure which caused redistribution of labour from the state and agricultural sectors to the private one. Under the Soviet power value and normative stereotypes in employment oriented individuals to stability and invariable guarantees. The whole system of material and moral rewards which was aimed at consolidating employees' professional and qualification positions in production, helped to fix them to the working place, restrain non-sanctioned social and labour mobility etc.

In a transition period the main social contradiction emerged in employment is that, on the one hand, a market model lets the person's economic initiative and his independent choice of job develop free. The respondents assert that as a result of reforms they have got chances to create a new life and manifest their gifts.

On the other hand, in a transition to a market economy when people's behaviour began to be regulated by norms and orientations of labour which are quite different from those established over the years of Soviet power, a lot of people had not only to change their social and professional statuses, but in most cases move to a lower stratum after they became unemployed, and then they had to get a new qualification which, as a rule, didn't require their education or acquired professional knowledge.

As the social status of a person is primarily determined by his professional and job level, the causes for growing conflict situations at all levels of social interactions in a transitive society have become clear. When the head of the family has been out of job for a long time, it may lead to destroying his family; in this case an interpersonal conflict takes place. Representatives of lower classes are forming negative views about unemployment, wealth in general and successful businessmen in particular. It means that in the society there are causes for an increase of group conflicts, too.

In the context of interpersonal conflicts' increase in the world the number of deviants who consider themselves outside formal social structures (for instance, criminals, dope fiends, homeless, alcoholics) is increasing in transitive countries, too. These people do not share and demonstrate norms and values dominating in the society, they reject them and generate hostility to others. Although in small numbers these inevitable products of social life, which is now becoming more and more complicated, don't make social relations seriously destabilized, at the micro-level those subjects always produce conflict situations. Growth of interpersonal conflicts in post-soviet societies is also caused by non-critical perception of Western countries' experience which has fixed different ideals of a strong man (gangster, killer etc), by collapse of the previous system of values and borrowing of a new system of norms and patterns of behaviour heterogeneous to Slavonic culture.

Basic concepts

Accommodation - a form of social interaction when individuals or groups get used to the conflict situation, their interactions are temporarily fixed and controlled through the laws and norms.

Action - movement with a meaning and purpose.

Arbitration - a number of procedures of conciliatory character exercised by formally authorized establishments or agencies such as labour courts.

Assimilation - a process of interpenetration and fusion in which individuals and groups acquire the memories, sentiments and attitudes of other people and groups, and, by sharing their experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common culture.

Coercion - making use of military forces when interethnic and interstate contradictions become sharp.

Competition - an elementary universal and fundamental form of social interaction, the struggle for existence (by R. Park).

Compromise - a method to solve a conflict when agreement is achieved by making mutual concessions.

Conflict - a form of social interaction when actors identify each other as rivals or as enemies because the problems arising among them are perceived as not solved by any other means or perceived as a threat to their existence (by R. Park).

Constructive conflict - conflict enabling to bring about contradictions and solve them, develop forward, correct interactions, etc.

Destructive conflict - conflict which breaks effective interaction and brings harm to the both interaction partners.

Deviation - a method to settle a conflict when one avoids from a conflict interaction, excluding demonstration of one's own success, advantages, benefits etc. in order to humiliate the partner so that he isn't able to resist.

Interpersonal (face-to-face) interaction - observable interaction among people in dyad, triad and between one to many.

Group interaction - observable interaction among members of a group when both the group's social orientations and values shared by all or most of its members are manifested.

Mediation - applying to the third, neutral party, or mediator who is not directly involved in the conflict so as to cease fighting and start cooperating.

Non-realistic conflict - conflict caused by accumulated negatives emotions, offence, hostility and the like (by L. Coser).

Realistic conflict - conflict oriented to achieve a definite outcome, and the reason for its appearance may become inequality as the distinction of any society (by L. Coser).

Social action - a person's movement with a meaning and purpose that requires a response from another person.

Social behaviour - action addressed towards other people.

Social contact - a pair of social actions.

Social interaction - a dynamic, changing sequence of social actions between people (or groups) who modify their actions and reactions due to the actions undertaken by their interaction partner(s).

Social relation - a multitude of social interactions, regulated by social norm, between two or more people, each having a social position and performing a social role; a stable system of regulated interactions between two or more partners on the basis of a certain platform (i. e. interest).

Social process - those activities, actions, events or operations that involve the interaction between people.

Societal interaction - indirect interaction bearing on the level of community and society.

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