It can be found in the work of Pareto, and his followers, in the belief that society is a system. Durkheim, Spencer and many others favored the organismic analogy: society was viewed as a system made up of interconnected parts functioning to maintain the whole. Aron is referring to Pareto's formulation of a general mechanism which underpins the movement of society. Four variables, called "interest", "residues", "derivations" and "social heterogeneity", are seen as being in a state of mutual dependence.
