According to david easton regulatory mechanism of political system
Answers
A Self-Regulatory System:
A crucial part of Easton’s general systems analysis is that political system is a self-regulatory system. He believes that political system is surrounded by an environment into which there are number of systems such as economic systems, social system, cultural system etc. Again, within the environment there are other elements.
All the systems as well as elements of the environment react upon the political system and this, in turn, reacts to it. In other words, a political system is neither sterile nor neutral to any move or action. As soon as a move or action reaches the domain of the political system it immediately or at a convenient time responds to that action. But this action or reaction does not stop; rather it is a continuous process.
One thing is to be noted here. When outside forces enter into the domain of political system they may disrupt the normal functioning of political system or simply disturb it. Question is: does the political system stop its function or does it collapse? Easton and his followers have maintained that because of the onslaught of the forces coming from the environment or other systems, political system does not collapse.
Easton has discovered it from his study of different political systems and a comparative analysis. If the outside forces could destroy the political systems it could not survive at all. But reality teaches us that political systems have survived and will continue to survive. Easton calls it persistence and it is known to the readers as persistence theory or concept. The introduction of the self-regulatory mechanism constitutes a vital aspect of systems analysis.
Why does a political theory survive? Easton’s categorical reply—and the same corroborated by others—is that every political system is endowed with certain self- regulatory mechanisms whose function is to combat the forces about to adversely affect the political system or to disturb the normal functioning of the system. No political system is free from stress and strain emanating from other systems or environment.
But this self-regulatory mechanism succeeds in keeping the political system unaffected. Or, if it is at all affected, it makes no harm to the political system. The self-regulatory mechanism exposes once again the interdependence of systems and sub-system.
It is not correct to hold the view that a political system always fights the outside forces. Political system has the ability to adopt the issues or stresses and strains. In other words, political system makes all sorts of compromises with them and finally they are assimilated with the political system.
This quality of adaptation or assimilation is a unique feature of political system. The survival of political system is the consequence of double action—it combats and it adapts. Even if everything changes system survives. By assimilating other features political system enriches itself and at the same time it also contributes to the development of other systems. This is called give and take policy.
While explaining the self-regulatory character of political system Davies and Lewis have shed light still on another aspect of General Systems Theory. They have said that being influenced by the forces of other systems or any element of the environment the political system can remodel its own structure or change its process. Even, it can reorient its functions to suit the needs required by the forces.
In the re-modeling of structure or reorienting of processes there is an important contribution of communication which should not escape our attention. There is a constant inflow or outflow of information to the political system or out of the political system. This is the communication network. The information is communicated by the agencies which are quite active within the system. This is the communication theory elaborated and popularised by Karl Deutsch.
The communication is so important that if its network fails to communicate necessary information emanating from other systems or to send any information arising from the system (political) itself then it will not be possible for the system to respond and, in that case, it will be in a stationary position. In other words, the political system will not be embraced by any change.
The self-regulatory mechanism also highlights a quite different concept which is popularly termed as social change. Thus self-regulatory mechanism is an interesting and complicated concept. It has been asserted that self-regulatory mechanism, communication network and general system theory all are allied concepts.