Importance of David Easton System Analysis:
Easton’s method has its own advantages. Oran R. Young says that the input-output analysis has the following features which make it attractive.
(1) It presents a nicely standardized set of concepts and categories that have the merit of being logically inclusive.
(2) It is formulated at a level of abstraction that avoids the dangers of becoming tied to any particular type of political system.
Young says, “Although it is difficult to tell how a practice will work out, it seems likely that input-output analysis in its present form contains something of an elitist orientation. Throughout the conceptual framework, the central focus is on the politically relevant members….”
In the words of Oran Young, “It is able to deal with various problems of applying systems analysis to political questions in a co-ordinating fashion without having to cope with the problems of adaptation”. He further says, “That is undoubtedly the most inclusive systems approaches so far constructed specifically for political analysis by a political scientist”. To quote Eugene Meehan, “He (Easton) has produced one of the few comprehensive attempts to lay a foundation for systems analysis in political science and provide a general functional theory of politics”.
Once Easton had presented his original ‘box model’, other political thinkers soon began to follow with different ways of depicting the system. William C. Mitchell has divided inputs and outputs somewhat differently from Easton, indicating that demands and support do not account for all the systems inputs; expectations and resources, on which the system operates, are also very essential Mitchell also defined the outputs into three categories: goals, value and costs and controls. The process is illustrated in the following diagram.
Easton himself presented so many additional versions of international politics in his model.
David Easton’s systems analysis has brought about a revolution in the sphere of international politics. He has developed many new ideas; a general theory in particular, which has widened the scope of the study of political science. Hence, the system’s approach has its own place in the study of international politics.
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