Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1982

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Political Science

Major Professor

Robert B. Cunningham

Abstract

This study deals with the recent evolution of the American political system. It contends that a major change is taking place within that system, and considers whether current political science theorizing can account for this transformation. The histories of the elitist, pluralist, and corporatist schools of political thought are traced, the concept of political development is re-examined, and recent analyses of American politics are culled to present an argument that a form of societal corporatism is emerging.

This analysis emphasizes the growing role that formal organizations are acquiring in making authoritative community decisions, examines the current decision-making structure in the United States, and classifies it as corporatist in nature. American politics has become organizational politics, it argues, and should begin to be studied as such. Elements of organization theory and general systems theory are used to describe the combination of fragmentation and concentration that is occurring, and a tentative model of the resulting structure is offered. The study portrays the system as a set of Vertical Policy Complexes as recent outgrowths of bureaucratic subgovernments, and concludes by urging further research along corporatist lines.

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