Sociology Plus
Dominant Value System Definition
A dominant value system is the construct of ideas and viewpoints that together form the leading set of values in a society. It is usually composed of ideas that serve the interests of the ruling class, yet through the work of various agencies — the media prominent among them — these values also come to be accepted as legitimate by large numbers of the subordinate groups in society.
How It Secures Acceptance
Where members of the working class embrace the dominant value system, sociologists have suggested it is usually because they are either deferential — accepting the leadership of their “betters” as natural and proper — or aspirational, hoping to rise within the existing order rather than to change it. In performing this role the dominant value system legitimizes society and contributes to social order: inequality appears justified, and the institutions that sustain it appear beyond serious question. The idea belongs to a family of related concepts including the dominant ideology thesis and Gramsci’s notion of hegemony, and it figured centrally in Frank Parkin’s influential account of class values, which contrasted the dominant value system with subordinate and radical value systems that workers may also draw upon.
Criticisms
The concept faces two persistent difficulties. First, it is hard to demonstrate empirically that a single dominant value system actually exists — its content is rarely specified precisely enough to test. Second, even where shared values can be identified, it is difficult to show that subordinate groups accept them uncritically rather than pragmatically or partially. Postmodernists press the point furthest, arguing that contemporary societies are characterized by a plurality of ideas, identities, and viewpoints rather than by any single dominant set of values.