What is meant by social order and how is it maintained?
Social order is the tendency of social institutions to resist and regulate change. It is useful as it provides a backdrop and relativity to compare social change.
Every society strives for social order in order to maintain stability and provide a strong and viable social system. This inevitably leads to the process of stratification of society as social rules need a visible authority for them to be followed. Thus, social order is maintained by the people who are in power because they do not want to lose control over the societal norms and access to resources. Therefore, the dominant groups in societies resist social change because it may reduce their status. As power generally lies with such groups, they are successful in their endeavour and societies acquire stability.