Mudsill theory

(noun)

A sociological idea that there must be, and always has been, a lower class for the upper classes to rest upon; the name is derived from the lowest threshold that supports the foundation for a building.

Related Terms

Examples of Mudsill theory in the following topics:

  • The Proslavery Argument

    • This "mudsill theory" supposed that there must be, and has always been, a lower class for the upper classes to rest upon.
    • (The mudsill is the lowest layer that supports the foundation of a building.)
    • In this view, any efforts toward class or racial equality ran counter to this theory and therefore ran counter to civilization itself.
    • Senate advocating the "positive good" theory of slavery, declaring that slavery was, "instead of an evil, a good—a positive good."
    • James Henry Hammond's 1858 "Mudsill Speech" argued that slavery would eliminate social ills by eliminating the class of landless poor.

  • Conclusion: The State of Slavery before the War

    • Henry James Hammond’s “mudsill theory” argued that upper classes required a lower class to rest upon in order to enable the higher classes to move civilization forward.

  • Conflict Theory

    • Provide an overview of conflict theory, including its most prominent theorists.

  • Managerial Assumption: McGregor

    • McGregor's main theory is comprised of Theory X and Theory Y.
    • Theory Y is in line with behavioral management theories.
    • Theory Y managers are generally the opposite.
    • McGregor was a lifetime proponent of Theory Y.
    • Explain Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y approach, merging classical and behavioral organizational theories

  • Drive-Reduction Theory

  • Freud's Psychosexual Theory of Development

  • Drive Theory

  • Political Opportunity Theory

    • Describe how and why political opportunities are important to social movements according to political opportunity theory.

  • New Social Movement theories

  • Scientific Method

    • If a theory can accommodate all possible results then it is not a scientific theory.
    • Although strictly speaking, disconfirming an hypothesis deduced from a theory disconfirms the theory, it rarely leads to the abandonment of the theory.
    • If the theory has to be modified over and over to accommodate new findings, the theory generally becomes less and less parsimonious.
    • This can lead to discontent with the theory and the search for a new theory.
    • If a new theory is developed that can explain the same facts in a more parsimonious way, then the new theory will eventually supersede the old theory.