Strengths of institutional approach

Institutional approach attempts look at social issues objectively and scientifically. Changes in social institutions have undoubtedly improved human conditions in different epochs, at least temporarily. It will be utterly unacceptable to say that independence in colonial countries did not at all help in making a better society there or that Bolshevik revolution had no positive impact on the condition of the working classes. After Cultural Revolution life for millions of peasants and workers did certainly improve in China. As a matter of fact the history of mankind is more a history of institutional efforts to create a more just and harmonious society than the history of spiritualism and religious realizations. Even saints have taken keen interest in social matters and advancing social change. National wars, class struggle, womens movements, fighting for a better system of governance, ethnic cleansing, movements for voting rights, movements for institutional change to stop adverse climate change, and legal battles for human rights are more known to any layman than movements for moral reforms. Gandhi tried to remove untouchability from India but he used a moral approach. It did not succeed and ultimately the Government of India made it illegal and this certainly produced results. This shows the necessity of institutional approach for human ends.