Understanding Political Conflicts:An Explaination Of Mass Society Theory And Criss-Cross Hypothesis

Political conflict is a classical and vital theoretical topic in the western political study. Different schools explain the origin, development and reconciliation of political conflicts from differing prospective among which the mass society theory shares a very basic position. Even the concept of"mass society"is widely used in Politics, Communication, Sociology, Psychology and some other modern learning, the political definition of"mass society"has become so important and basic in modern theory study since 19th century. Mass society is a transitional social form which is lack of a well developed buffer level thus the elites and masses are faced with each other directly without any protection. The significant character of mass society is the loss of independent intermediate organizations. Without the buffer level's involvement, on the one hand elites are accessible and on the other hand masses are easily mobilized .Then social and political conflicts are commonly seen in a mass society. The mass society hypothesis is so useful tool that can be used to analyze the origination of mass behavior vertically dividing a society into top elites relations, intermediate relations and primary relations however it ignores the crosswise outlook of the medium level itself. In other word its inadequacy in intermediate group structure study limits its explanation on political conflicts.The essay brings in the criss-cross hypothesis concentrating on the overlapping membership inside of a political structure which's beneficial to"sew up"the intensity of political antagonism combining the mass society theory together to analyze the political conflicts in a transitional society.Under a"mass society-criss cross"model, taking"color revolutionary"countries of post-communist society as cases, the thesis gives a new explanatory view of political conflicts and stability study.