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Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior, in terms of greater sanctions and rewards. It may also designate the processes of informal social control such as custom and formal social control such as law of deviant behavior which falls beyond the bounds set by social norms. Social control is present in all societies, if only in the control mechanisms used to prevent its establishment in anarchic situations.
Formal social control is expressed through law as statutes, rules, and regulation. It is conducted by government and organizations using law enforcement mechanisms and other formal sanctions such as fines and imprisonment. Informal social control is exercised by a society without explicitly stating these rules and is expressed through custom, norms, and mores using informal sanctions such as criticism, disapproval, guilt and shaming. This implied social control usually has more control over individual minds because they become ingrained in their personality.
Traditional society uses mostly informal social control embedded in its customary culture relying on socialization of its members to establish social order. More rigidly-structured societies place increasing reliance on formal mechanisms.
In democratic societies the goals and mechanisms of social control are determined through legislation by elected representatives and thus enjoy a measure of support from the population and voluntary compliance.
According to the Propaganda model, the leaders of modern corporate dominated societies employ indoctrination as a means of social control. The marketing, advertising, and public relations industries utilize mass communications to aid the interests of the business elite. Powerful economic and religious leaders use the school system and centralised electronic communications to carefully craft public opinion. Democracy is restricted since the majority is not given the information necessary to make rational decisions about ethical, social, or economic issues. Given a more diverse or accurate representation of the world, members of society would hold vastly different and probably more personally beneficial opinions. The main example of a propaganda society is the United States. However, many communities in America appear largely free from the influence of propaganda, and members of other modern states are often more thoroughly entrenched in the ideology given by dominant interests.
In order to maintain control and regulate their subjects, authoritarian organizations and governments promulgate rules and issue decrees. However, due to a lack of popular support for enforcement, these entities must rely more on force and other severe sanctions such as censorship, expulsion and limits on freedom. In extreme cases, totalitarian governments such as the late Soviet Union (or currently North Korea) rely on the mechanisms of the police state.
Sociologists consider informal means of social control vital in maintaining public order, but also recognize the necessity of formal means as societies become more complex and for responding to emergencies. The study of social control falls within the academic disciplines of anthropology, economics, history, law, political science, psychology, sociology, and theology.
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