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XXXIV Samy Friedman
conservatism) in order to examine the notion of systems they have engendered,
one excellent effect being to emphasize the nature of the processes themselves.
He continues by discussing the concepts of functional mechanisms (Goode) and
of reciprocity (Gouldner), which bring functionalism, by its extension and dyna-
mization, closer to general systems theory. On the other hand, in contrast to
the trend in anthropology and linguistics, structuralism has as yet made only
minor incursions into sociology.
In his introduction, Jean Piaget had already shown what influence the ideo-
logical or philosophical positions of the scientist might exert on research. He
stressed the limitations that the scientist’s subservience to a philosophy, whether
empiricist or dialectical, might entail. Paul Lazarsfeld also exposes parallel
considerations regarding the effects of national variations on sociology : vari-
ations in subject matter when social conditions prompt the study of national
problems of immediate topical concern (the caste system in India, internal
migrations in Italy), or, on the contrary, rule out certain subjects deemed to be
of little interest (discrimination, minorities in the Netherlands, revolution in the
United States); cultural variations, as for example when the Dutch aversion to
intellectual system-building leads to a preference for theories of the middle
range, or when the Indians turn back to their traditional philosophy ; but also
accidental variations occasioned by the r6le of an outstanding personality
(Znaniecki in Poland) or by the creation of a new institution destined to trans-
form the practice of sociology (the Latin American Social Science Faculty in
Chile, the Sociological Research Group in Budapest).
Professor Lazarsfeld closes his chapter by an examination of thelinks between
sociology and the other social sciences, with particular reference to the signifi-
cance of sociology’s newly-evolved mode of analysis for these sciences and their
use of sociological concepts and methods. Thus, for example, the technique of
survey analysis has been extended to anthropology (Stoetzel and the study of the
Japanese Giri); to economics, for the study of the propensity to save and the in-
tention to invest, people’s willingness to migrate to new job opportunities, etc. ;
to psychology, for determining the characteristics of life in society; to political
science, for evaluating the complexity of opinion structures. Finally, a special
place is given to an analysis of the complex relationship between sociology and
psychology.
Like sociology, with which it has obvious links, political science, examined by
W. J. M. Mackenzie in the following chapter, is also a residual science that has
gradually branched off from proto-history ; here, too, application of scientific
method and interpretation of data are difficult, and conclusions are frequently
dependent on the environment. Political science is as extensively sub-divided as
the world of politics, but it strives nevertheless to attain universality in its concepts
and its methods. As the central concept of his analysis, the author, with some
qualifications and reservations, takes the study of the State and political insti-
tions in a particular territory and in conjunction with a given cultural system.
Political science is first of all descriptive, but makes use of particular cases to
arrive at general theoretical conceptions, couched in the language of variates.
It is also normative, being concerned with norms and offering advice to rulers