Definition of Status Quo

According to yourDictionary.com, status quo is defined as "the existing state of affairs (at a particular time)" or "the situation as it currently exists." The concept of status quo is often used when referring to political or social conditions. The idea is often debated vis-à-vis the dialectic between power systems that reinforce the status quo and those who seek to subvert it.

Many political scientists, critical theorists, and philosophers have weighed in on the concept of status quo, often discussing it through the use of alternate language. German political economist Karl Mark's expressed the concept of status quo through the term ideology. For Marx, ideology is the product of the economic conditions of a particular class at a particular period of history. The cultural, political, and economic systems that grow out of these material conditions become the ideology of an era. For example, Marx argues that ideological concepts like religion and the afterlife are more prevalent among oppressed peoples who live under harsh material conditions. Marx, as a revolutionary, argued that the ideology of a given period of time is not natural. It is a constructed system and, therefore, can be changed.

Linguist and literary critic Roger Fowler discussed the concept of status quo as being the common sense of a period of time. Common sense becomes habitualized when ideas of a given time are firmly established in the people's conscience. Fowler warns that this habitualization can lead to a collective social thought that increasingly becomes uncritical. Fowler suggests it is the function of art to defamiliarize the status quo and to force society to look critically at the ideas that are accepted as fact.

For more information on status quo, yourDictionary recommends the following resources:

• Marx on Ideology: A concise summary of Marx's views on status quo and ideology.
• Habitualization and Defamiliarization: This article from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire further explores the ideas of status quo, habitualization, and defamiliarization.
• Change Theory: This article focuses on the forces that maintain and resist the production of the status quo from the perspective of the discipline of psychology.