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This chapter considers theories of social process in early twentieth-century America, analyzing how process theory set the stage for subsequent developments in political science. Where the early British pluralists argued that modern society was best described in terms of the groups that compose it, process theorists in America argued that modern society can only be adequately described in terms of the processes that flow through it. This notion brought the problem of social order to the fore in a variation on themes pursued by the pluralists.

This Element presents an examination of the origins of the policy sciences in the School of Pragmatism at the University of Chicago in the period 1915–38. Harold D. Lasswell, the principal creator of the policy sciences, based much of his work on the perspectives of public policy of John Dewey and other pragmatists at Chicago. Characteristics of the policy sciences include orientations that are normative, policy-relevant, contextual, and multi-disciplinary. These orientations originate in pragmatist principles of the unity of knowledge and action and functionalist explanations of action by reference to values. These principles are central to the future development of the policy sciences.

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3 - Processing Community

Summary

Pragmatism and the Origins of the Policy Sciences

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2 results

3 - Processing Community

Summary

Pragmatism and the Origins of the Policy Sciences