FUNCTIONALISM AND ITS CRITICS - Intercollegiate Studies Institute

FUNCTIONALISM AND ITS CRITICS 245
Our confusion is compounded by the fact that Almond has
dropped integration and adaptation as overall functions of the political
system. In one sense the loss is not very great, for he never did
define the terms. They seem to have been taken over from the work
of Parsons, although Parsons tended to see adaptation as a function
of the economic system, and thought that integration was the function
of the legal system, among others. 23
The inconsistencies in Almond ' s discussion of the political system
are fairly distressing. However they are not really terribly important
in terms of his analysis, for it is quite clear as we examine Comparative
Politics, that Almond ' s functionalism is still derived from an
Eastonian model. The political system is conceived of as a mechanism
for processing demands from the larger society. Almond ' s strategy
for comparing political systems, then, is still in terms of the variables
first developed in The Politics of Developing Areas, with some additions.
As already noted, interest articulation, interest aggregation,
rule making, rule application and communication are considered
" conversion functions. " Political recruitment, as classified along
with political socialization as fulfilling intra political " system maintenance
" and " adaptation " functions, and the content of demands
and supports which flow into the political system, are specified, as
are system outputs. Demands include those for the allocation of
goods and services; for the regulation of behavior, for participation
and communication. Supports include material supports, obedience
to laws and regulations, participatory supports such as voting, and
attention paid to communications. Finally, outputs include extractions,
regulations, allocations or distribution of goods and services,
and symbolic outputs. Clearly, Almond ' s scheme for evaluating
system capabilities derives from this list. 24
There are a number of issues we might raise. It is not easy to
see, for example, why communication is called a conversion function.
Communication would seem, on the face of it, to play a
quite different role in any political system than, say, interest aggregation.
Further, Almond still fails to indicate clearly what he
means by adaptation and system maintenance and how and why
political recruitment and political socialization fulfill these functions
23
Talcott Parsons, Politics and Social Structure (New York, 1969), pp.
398-99.
24 Comparative Politics, pp. 25-27 and seq.