Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Dedication
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Notes on measurement
- Part I Theoretical methods
- Part II Applications to theoretical problems
- Prologue
- 8 Political systems
- 9 Planning
- 10 Simultaneous change and modernization
- 11 Profits, optimality, and the social division of labor in the firm
- Part III Empirical verification
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Dedication
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Notes on measurement
- Part I Theoretical methods
- Part II Applications to theoretical problems
- Prologue
- 8 Political systems
- 9 Planning
- 10 Simultaneous change and modernization
- 11 Profits, optimality, and the social division of labor in the firm
- Part III Empirical verification
- Index
Summary
Part II is concerned solely with the application of the methodology developed in Part I to selected theoretical discussions. The static, simultaneous relations model is used in Chapter 8 to distinguish between political structure and political system by thinking of the former as a system of simultaneous relations and the latter as a solution of it. In Chapter 9 a planner's view of the making of sequential decisions by society's decision-making units is modeled with a system of periodic relations. Time paths are examined with respect to the logic of their potential for manipulation by the planner. Chapter 10 again utilizes a system of simultaneous relations to describe the general structure of society. Society itself is defined as a solution of the system dependent on certain parameter values. Change over time also occurs as parameters modulate according to specific periodic relations.
It should be emphasized that in all three cases, claims of originality are strictly limited. No outstanding problem is solved, no conclusion is extended, no new proposition is proved, and no new question is raised in any of the fields that these chapters represent. In fact, practically all approaches, concepts, hypotheses, and propositions are lifted directly from the references cited. Thus the models presented are at least as deficient as the original sources. Nevertheless, the contribution of these chapters is to show how the methodology of Part I can be applied to existing ideas. The result is an infusion of fresh rigor, precision, and mathematical-type argument into work that has already been completed.
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- Information
- Analysis Without Measurement , pp. 159 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983