It was influential in advancing sociological theories and thought, with ideas which in turn were influenced by Auguste Comte.

Durkheim suggested that in a "primitive" society, mechanical solidarity, with people acting and thinking alike and with a shared collective conscience, is what allows social order to be maintained.

[1] Because social ties are relatively homogeneous and weak throughout a mechanical society, the law has to be repressive and penal to respond to offences of the common conscience.

In fact this regulation forms naturally in response to the division of labor, allowing people to "compose their differences peaceably".

Unlike Karl Marx, Durkheim did not foresee any different society arising out of the industrial capitalist division of labour.