INTRODUCTION

Systems theory in political science is a highly abstract, partly holistic view

of politics, influenced by cybernetics. The adaptation of system
theory to political science was first conceived by David Easton in 1953.
Political system approach is part of the behaviourist movement in political
science and as a reaction to traditional approach.
David Easton was the first to think to analysing politics from the point of view
of system analysis in his work Political System (1953). Acc to Easton, political
system is an interaction in any society through which authoritative and binding
allocations of values are made and implemented. He selected political system as
a unit of analysis and concentrated on intra system behaviour. He holds that all
political systems are both open and adaptive. He studied the nature of
exchanges and transactions that takes place in a closed circuit but is made
because of the demands from the society or environment. Because of the
supports from the environment they become authoritative
The study of politics is concerned with understanding how authoritative
decisions are made and executed for a society. We can try to understand
political life by viewing each of its aspects piecemeal. We can examine the
operation of such institutions as political parties, interest groups, government,
and voting; we can study the nature and consequences of such political practices
as manipulation, propaganda, and violence; we can seek to reveal the structure
within which this practice occur. By combining the results, we can obtain a
rough picture of what happens in self-contained political unit.
In combining these results, however, there is already implicit the notion that
each part of the larger political canvas does not stand alone but is related to each
other part; or, to put it positively, that the operation of no one part can be fully
understood without reference to way in which the whole itself operates. David
Easton have suggested in my book, the political system that is valuable to adopt
this implicit assumption as an articulate premise for research and to view
political life as a system of interrelated activities. These activates derive their
relatedness or systematic ties from the facts that they all more or less influence
the way in which authority decisions are formulated and executed for a society.
Once we begin to speak about political life as a system of activity, certain
consequences follow for the way in which we can undertake to analyse the
working of a system. The very idea of a system suggests that we can separate
political life from the rest of social activity, at least for analytical purposes, and
examine it as though for a moment it were a self-contained entity surrounded
by, but clearly distinguishable from, the environment or setting in which it
operates. In much the same way astronomers consider the solar system a
complex of events isolated for certain purposes from the rest of the universe.
EXPLANATION OF TOPIC

Definition: Easton defines a political system as “that system of interactions in

any society through which binding or authoritative allocations are made and
implemented. Authoritative allocations relate to the values or objects or
resources of human needs and desires. They can be roughly translated as laws or
acts of policy.
Easton’s model of the political system (commonly called a polity or State)
consists of two main parts: the environment and the political system as such.
Hie political system consists of (i) the conversion process, shown as “the box”
in the model (ii) the inputs, (iii) the outputs and (iv) the feedback. We may add
here that, according to Easton, there are, besides the political system, two other
political systems. One of them is below it, which he called para-political
system, e.g. political panics, pressure groups, etc. and the other is above it,
namely the international political system. But it is the national political system
which is a political system par excellence because it alone makes and
implements authoritative decisions allocating values or goods and resources to
individuals, and groups, in the society.
Environment: According to Easton, political life is “a system of behaviour
embedded in an environment to the influence of which the political system itself
is exposed and in turn reacts”. The environment, within which the political
system exists, comprises all the social, economic, cultural, religious, ideological
and other conditions, without which a political system cannot’ exist in more
concrete terms, it means the natural and human resources of the economy,
ecological conditions, and all other material and non-material variables.
They also include the international resources, influences and conditions for
instance, both Soviet Union and U.S.A. are international resources for Bharat,
while for Pakistan. America is the only resource. Both the internal and external
variables are not a pan of the political system. According to Easton, “In the
environment we have such systems as the ecology, economy, culture,
personality, social structure and demography”.
The limits or lines, which separate the environment from the political system,
constitute its boundary. Within die boundary lies the political system, which is
defined by the possibility of the exorcise of legitimate force of its binding
decisions. But the boundary is constantly changing, because the conditions in
the environment are also constantly changing and the political system has to
cope with these changes or variables.
They constitute the external variables of the political system. They are the
forces which shape and change the inputs some of them come from within the
system itself. It may be further noted that Eastern’s model is based on
behavioural approach to politics. As he himself said in a later article, “We have
been interpreting political life as a system of behaviour set in an environment
and open to the influences stemming from that environment, as well as from
internal sources.”
The Inputs: Political process begins with the inputs. They are, broadly
speaking, of three kinds: demands, supports and apathy or opposition. The
government receives the demands and the supports from the domestic and
foreign interests, that is, from the environment around the political system.
Demands provide the raw material or information, which the system must
process and the energy which the system needs. They lead to political activity.
They are the signs that the people or the groups want action. They arise either in
the environment (external) or within the system itself (internal).
The external or environmental sources of the demands are the major portion of
the demands, shaping the variables from outside the olitical system. They can be
expressed in all manner of ways, such as public opinion, polis, political parties,
pressure groups, letters written to the governmental system, and also by means
of riots, public demonstrations, and protest marches, etc. But the demands may
arise internally from within the governmental system itself. They arise from
such aspects and influences as the representation system, the nature of the
constitution itself and the norms and procedures of the governmental system;
they also arise from the values of the political culture of a political system.
In short, they are the significant parts of die material on which the system
operates. They are also the one important source of change in the political
system. Roughly speaking, out of about one lakh needs, desires, expectations,
plans and projects of the people, including social groups and political parties,
about one thousand become their demands. Out of about one thousand demands
about one hundred become challenges or issues which influence the government
decision makers Out of one hundred issues about ten are actually converted into
outputs, i.e., become laws and acts of policy.
In a democratic polity, out of the ten outputs, nine have originated from the
people or political parties and groups, while one has come from the government
itself. But in an undemocratic polity, such as a dictatorship or an autocracy, the
ratio is reversed: one effective demand comes from the people, while the nine
come from the government Demands are of several kinds. They depend on the
type of the political system. 
AIMS & OBJECTIVES

There are many aims and objectives in this project, the most important aim is to
explore the topic of political system approach.

CONCLUSION