WE possess today a vast literature concerning the groups, organizations, and agencies in virtue of which we call our society pluralistic: how they “work” and are governed, how they square off to one another, how they influence or seek to influence public policy, and what, once understood, they teach “us” about “our” “behavior.” Its authors are political scientists, sociologists, economists, all of whom take pride in being empirical in confining themselves to data that can be observed, to ideas that are operational (that is, capable of being tested by experience), to a point of view that is “impartial,” “value-free.” Officially, they neither approve nor disapprove of the “realities” they describe: they merely record, classify, seek “correlations,” report.
The Decline of American Pluralism, by Henry S. Kariel. Stanford University Press, $6.75
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