ideal type

(adjective)

An ideal type is not a particular person or thing that exists in the world, but an extreme form of a concept used by sociologists in theories. For example, although there is not a perfectly "modern" society, the term "modern" is used as an ideal type in certain theories to make large-scale points.

Related Terms

Examples of ideal type in the following topics:

  • Factions

    • Most real populations do not look like this, but the "ideal type" of complete connection within and complete disconnection between sub-groups is a useful reference point for assessing the degree of "factionalization" in a population.
    • If we took all the members of each "faction" in this ideal-typical society, and put their rows and columns together in an adjacency matrix (i.e. permuted the matrix), we would see a distinctive pattern of "1-blocks" and "0-blocks."
    • Network>Subgroups>Factions is an algorithm that finds the optimal arrangement of actors into factions to maximize similarity to the ideal type, and measures how well the data actually fit the ideal type.
    • This count (27 in this case) is the sum of the number of zeros within factions (where all the ties are supposed to be present in the ideal type) plus the number of ones in the non-diagonal blocks (ties between members of different factions, which are supposed to be absent in the ideal type).

  • Sect

    • Before describing these different religions, it is important for the reader to understand that these classifications are a good example of what sociologists refer to as ideal types.
    • Ideal types are pure examples of the categories.
    • Because there is significant variation in each religion, how closely an individual religion actually adheres to their ideal type classification will vary.

  • Weber's Model for Bureaucracy

    • In his 1922 masterpiece, Economy and Society, Weber described many ideal types of public administration and governance.
    • Weber's ideal bureaucracy is characterized by the following:
    • The majority of modern bureaucratic officials and political leaders represent this type of authority.
    • Describe Weber's ideal type of bureaucracy and his concept of te "iron cage"

  • The Church-Sect Typology

    • Before describing these different religions, it is important for the reader to understand that these classifications are a good example of what sociologists refer to as ideal types.
    • Ideal types are pure examples of the categories.
    • Because there is significant variation in each religion, how closely an individual religion actually adheres to their ideal type classification will vary.
    • The first type of religion is the church.
    • A slight modification of the church type is that of ecclesia.

  • Traditional Authority

    • Traditional authority is a type of leadership in which the authority of a ruling regime is largely tied to tradition or custom.
    • Weber noted that, in history, these ideal types of domination always seemed to occur in combinations.

  • Krackhardt's Graph Theoretical Dimensions of Hierarchy

    • Krackhardt defines a pure, "ideal typical" hierarchy as an "out-tree" graph.
    • This very simple definition of the pure type of hierarchy can be deconstructed into four individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions.
    • Krackhardt develops index numbers to assess the extent to which each of the four dimensions deviates from the pure ideal type of an out-tree, and hence develops four measures of the extent to which a given structure resembles the ideal typical hierarchy.
    • This aspect of the idea type is termed "efficiency" because structures with multiple bosses have un-necessary redundant communication of orders from superiors to subordinates.

  • Ideal vs. Real Culture

    • In America, ideal values include marriage and monogamy based on romantic love.
    • But such marriages are not universal, despite our value ideals.
    • Ideal values are absolute; they bear no exceptions.
    • The difference between these two types of systems can be seen when people state that they hold one value system, yet in practice deviate from it, thus holding a different value system.
    • Compare the idea of an idealized and a realized value system

  • Democracy

    • In practice, democracy is the extent to which a given system approximates this ideal.
    • A given political system is referred to as a democracy if it allows a certain approximation to ideal democracy.
    • However, the democratic principle has also been expressed as "the freedom to call something into being which did not exist before, which was not given … and which therefore, strictly speaking, could not be known. " This type of freedom, which is connected to human natality, or the capacity to begin anew, sees democracy as "not only a political system… [but] an ideal, an aspiration, really, intimately connected to and dependent upon a picture of what it is to be human—of what it is a human should be to be fully human. "
    • An essential part of an ideal representative democracy is competitive elections that are fair both substantively and procedurally.

  • Primary Groups

    • Sociologists distinguish between two types of groups based upon their characteristics.
    • Cooley argued that the impact of the primary group is so great that individuals cling to primary ideals in more complex associations and even create new primary groupings within formal organizations.

  • Path distances

    • Given a measure of nearness or farness for each actor, we can again calculate a measure of inequality in the distribution of distances across the actors, and express "graph centralization" relative to that of the idealized "star" network.
    • Several alternative approaches to measuring "far-ness" are available in the type setting.