Group Interests in Pakistan Politics, 1947-1958
1966; University of British Columbia; Volume: 39; Issue: 1/2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2755183
ISSN1715-3379
Autores Tópico(s)Irish and British Studies
ResumoR ECENT AMERICAN LITERATURE on political science is replete with studies with focus as the key to systematic understanding of political systems anywhere.1 Following Arthur F. Bentley's attempt to fashion a tool in his book Process of Government, first published in i908, recent writers like David B. Truman, Earl Latham and others have tried to explain governmental process as interactions of contending groups.2 classic formulation of came in Latham's words: The legislature referees group struggle, ratifies victories of successful coalition, and records terms of surrenders, compromises, and conquests in form of statutes.... Public policy is actually equilibrium in group struggle at any given moment and it represents balance which contending factions of groups constantly strive to weigh in their favour.3 limitations of group even for study of American political system, where group processes are more visible than in any other system, have already been pointed out by many political scientists. As Oliver Garceau says, case-studies of particular policy-formations show that the interplay of forces pictured in these is strikingly more complex than that produced by studies focussed on parallelogram of interest pressures.4 La Palombara, while trying to apply group-theory to Italian political system, found this simplistic theory of limited value. He came to conclusion that (i) except at a level of abstractions that renders it both useless and dangerous for empirical research, a general does not exist; and (2) it is necessary to examine some middle-range propositions about interest groups in order to ascertain if interest-group focus has any utility at all for construction of a general of politics.'
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