FUNCTIONALISM AND ITS CRITICS - Intercollegiate Studies Institute

272 THE POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEWER
into account man ' s relation to his total environment, and a theory
of motivation which satisfies our knowledge of man ' s biological
nature as well as his capacity to create culture. 88 If the events of
the past several years have reminded us of anything it is that any
such theory must take into account the non-rational elements of
human behavior. Almond regards himself as a " sober " trustee of the
enlightenment, but he is still a trustee, as are most political scientists.
The model is still of rational men seeking to satisfy interests. Their
conceptions of this interest may be determined, in part, by cultural
givens, but within that framework, their means and ends are more
or less rationally chosen. Despite the fact that psychoanalysis is all
but an American institution, there has been little effort to integrate
its insights into our work, since Lasswell ' s rather abortive efforts. 89
These last remarks have been critical, and it is much easier to
criticize than to innovate, at least if one sets reasonably rigorous
empirical standards by which one ' s innovations shall be judged. The
criticisms, however, are offered not to demolish functionalism as an
approach, but to suggest possible ways in which its fruitfulness for
the study of politics may be increased. Again, the functional approach
has not involved a revolution in the study of politics and
it has not led us much closer to solving the riddle of the sphinx. It
has enabled us to develop increased sophistication. In short, Almond
and those who have worked with him have important achievements
to their credit.
Much of the content of political science has remained and will
remain unchanged by the development of functional perspectives.
The need for historical analysis remains as important as ever, as do
detailed descriptions of particular institutions. More importantly, and
this may have more to do with the historical sources of functionalism,
than the framework itself, certain very important questions
do not seem amenable to a functional approach.
88
Two recent and very stimulating attempts to do just this are those of
Weston LaBarre, The Ghost Dance (New York, 1970), chs. 1 and 2, and
Peter A. Corning,
" The Biological Bases of Behavior and Some Implications
for Political Science, " World Politics 23 (April, 1971), pp. 321-370.
88 The reasons for this are complicated and have as much to do with the
nature of classical psychoanalysis as with political science. Recently signs have
developed of a new attempt to build bridges between psychoanalytic theory,
history and other social sciences. See, for example, the very insightful book
by Fred Weinstein and Gerald M. Platt, The Wish to Be Free ( Berkeley,
1969), La Barre, op. cit., also incorporates a psychoanalytic perspective.