Structural and interactionist theory share a parallel set of weaknesses in their ability to account adequately for the relationship between culture and action. Structural theory takes socialization as the major link between culture and conduct and thus generates an overdetermined and unrealistically rigid view of action. Interactionist theory, because of its focus on the improvisational and emergent character of action, finds it difficult to account for the massive fact that patterns of belief and action persist over time. The concept of aligning actions provides a bridge between structural and interactionist perspectives, lending the former a more satisfactory view of the formation of conduct and the latter a means of explaining persistence.