3. The Reproduction of the Social Order
Every social order seeks its own subsistence, if not its own development and expansion. The "national security" argument, used to justify all sorts of extra-legal endeavors, is simply the expression of every regime’s continued, systematic drive to guarantee its survival at critical moments. It is unnecessary to look for profound reasons to justify this pattern, at least in how it relates to the chief beneficiaries of every social order; it is logical that a class in power desires to maintain it.
Yet, the very fact that an order reflects a certain balance of social forces sets up a possible, internal source of its own instability; the social interests which find themselves inadequately represented or even rejected by a given order assume a perpetual role of questioning the regime and perhaps the system itself. Therefore, as Parsons emphasizes, every social system tries to secure its survival and reproduction, transmitting its demands to individuals so that they will internalize them as their own (the process of socialization) and make those modifications and changes which allow the system to survive (social evolution or differentiation).
Actions inherent in and coherent with the system are the most convenient channels for the system’s reproduction. In other words, the normal functioning of a social system is the chief process through which it is reproduced and assures its survival. The social order is strengthened and confirmed by the very act of ordering, in other words, by its members adhering to its demands and fulfilling its objectives, hence the social importance of daily routines, every more-or-less institutionalized act which people take as natural and do not question. Routines are perhaps the ideal mechanism for the reproduction of a social system, since the person governed by routines (the average person?) is the best promoter of the established order.
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