FUNCTIONALISM AND ITS CRITICS - Intercollegiate Studies Institute

FUNCTIONALISM AND ITS CRITICS
of evaluating political systems. His aim was to develop measures
which would enable us to specify the consequences of policies and
hence to make more intelligent choices:
The capacity for greater precision . . . enables us to make our
comparative analysis more relevant to debates over the ethics and
benefits of different types of political systems. 5R
When we introduce the capabilities level of analysis, we enhance
not only our capacity for scientific prediction and explanation, but
also our capacity to talk about policies as they may affect political
change in desired directions. 59
Almond ' s first concern at this point was with measures of sys -
tem effectiveness. Such measures, he felt, could give us some notion
of the capacity of the system to survive and grow. A measure of
system capacities is certainly a necessary preliminary to evaluating
any political system in social justice terms, if we assume that ought
usually implies can. For example, one ' s ethical evaluation of a
society which exposed weak or deformed children would certainly
depend very much upon one ' s estimate of its food resources and
level of technology.
Almond concentrates on three system capacities: the extractive,
regulative, and symbolic. 40 Extractive capacity has to do with the
range of system performance in drawing material and human resources
from the domestic and international environment. 61 Regulative
capacity has to do with the system's capacity to exere&se control
over individuals and groups. Symbolic capacity is not defined with
complete clarity, but seems to be a measure of the system ' s ability
to secure the support of its members through the "judicious creation
and exploitation of the set of powerful and popular symbols." 6 2
Two measures of system capacity discussed by Almond are more
closely related to issues of social justice, those of " distributive "
and "responsive " capacity. The first has to do with the "activity
of the political system as a distributor of benefits among individuals
or groups. Capacity here is measured by
5 8 Comparative Politics, p, 192.
69 Ibid., p. 194.
"Ibid., pp. 190-212.
sl lbid., p. 195.
"Ibid., p. 200.
259