The Coal Miners In France During The Second Empire

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ment differ from the end towards which the action is oriented. The
situation is composed of two elements; the conditions are that which the
actor cannot manipulate in accordance with his end, and the means are that
over which he does not have control. Finally there is a relation between
these elements; where a situation allows alterna- tive means to the end,
the course is selected from the normative orientation of the actor.
(Parsons, 1968: 44)

In order to account for the interrelationships in the historical event
and to anticipate a successful change of the capitalist structure, I will
use the voluntarist theory of action as presented by Talcott Parsons. This
theoretical approach, besides accounting for the unit act, describes the
process of interaction between norma- tive and conditional elements. The
normative elements are positively inter-dependant with the conditional and
non- normative elements in a specifically determined way. This is more
specifically ...

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Instead of paying the teams of workers for the total bulk mined
they propose to cut the payment for coal and increase the payment of
building the shafts. Because of the greater time element involved in
"timbering" the shafts, the workers take an overall cut in wages. This
surplus is re-invested into the production process so the firm may retain a
competitive status in the industry. The living standards are very low for
the worker both relative to the captialist as well as in an absolute sense.
There is a minimal of food which is provided by the company store. Since
the families are in debt to the store even if there are other jobs
available, they cannot leave the firm. Marx writes ...

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