Cultural control is the belief system of a culture. It is the ingrained teachings of a society that make a person responsible for his own conduct. Cultural control relies on a person’s basic knowledge of acceptable and unacceptable behavior that will deter that person from performing unacceptable actions. The positive or negative opinions of others in the culture serve as the major deterrent in cultural control.

Social control is the management of a culture through the use of force. This force comes in the form of sanctions. A sanction is a control placed on members of a society to promote acceptable social behaviors.

The biggest difference between cultural control and social control deals with sanctions. Cultural control relies on both

There is no well-defined line between social controls and cultural controls. Few laws are enacted and/or survive that do not support and reinforce the values of the culture at large. Such laws would be counter-productive and their enforcement could cause resentment in a society. But there are examples of laws that influence our culture. Consider drunken driving laws. Drunken driving was once little more than a moving violation. Then, through political rhetoric and legislative activity, stricter laws were enacted. Drunken driving is now considered taboo whether or not the offender is caught.

In conclusion, cultural controls and social controls affect one another in that, as cultural controls become weaker social controls must become stronger and visa versa. Cultural controls and social controls must remain in a delicate balance to retain social order. If they are too strict and stifling people will rebel against them. If they are too weak chaos will rule. The two differ mostly in the fact that culture controls with rewa

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