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This article presents a list of books, related to sociology. Some of the books mentioned in the article are "The Idea of a Spiritual Power: Comte Memorial Lecture," by H.B. Acton, "Gypsy Politics and Social Change," by T. Action, "Women in America," by E.H. Altbach, "Human Behavior in the Social Environment," by R.E. Anderson and I.E. Carter, "The Essential Comte," edited by S. Anderski, "The Social Control of Drugs," by P. Bean, "Computers and the Social Sciences," by A. Brier and I. Robinson and "Knowledge, Education and Cultural Change," edited by R. Brown.

What kind of organizational conditions encourage work groups to be concerned about performing efficiently? This paper examines some of the determinants of group performance norms in an industrial firm. Encouragement of efficiency and attempts by the foreman to obtain rewards for subordinates together are associated with high performance norms, but each alone has a negative effect on performance. Close supervision is found, in seeming contradiction to previous studies, to facilitate high performance norms. Reward for efficiency and strong group cohesiveness have the best effects when supervision is close. The conditions under which close supervision is effective and ineffective are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests the fruitfulness, for studies of verbal participation in discussions, of shifting from studying participation per se to studying the interpersonal control of participation. Focusing first on the nature of the data to be analyzed, the paper then analyzes the data and reconciles it with ocher findings in the literature to develop the concept of a hierarchical structure of communication. In this concept, leadership roles and levels of participation are seen as coincidental, arising out of interpersonal interchanges ultimately directed toward achieving coordination and consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a critical discussion of the papers by George H. Hilderbrand and William Fellner on long-run policies of the U.S. government. The author comments that with respect to long-run period both the economists correctly imply that full employment is assured only if we act right. There is among economists a vast amount of agreement bearing on what constitutes right action. Still, there remains a conflict of advice which is crucial when we come to specifics. The conflict is such that we dare not gloss it over but must, if we are to arrive at a stable consensus, keep it well to the fore. When it comes to selecting means for the control of aggregate demand, it notoriously may make a great difference, in what devices one will espouse, whether he does or does not believe that changes in the real value of cash balances exert significant force. If we turn to the problem of selecting a guide to action upon aggregate demand, we find again disagreements which the author doubts will be cleared up unless we frequently leaf through a well-kept record on the sources of disagreement, which goes back to and includes the argument over the automaticity of full employment.

This paper analyzes the empirical utility of consensual and conflictual theories in explaining the social cohesion of the liberal democracies of Britain and the United States. After clarifying conceptual problems of value consensus theory and Marxist theory, it examines the forms and extent of value-commitment in these countries. The conclusion is that both theories grossly overstate the amount of both value consensus between individuals and value consistency within individuals that actually exists. Cohesion in liberal democracy depends rather on the lack of consistent commitment to general values of any sort and on the "pragmatic acceptance" by subordinate classes of their limited roles in society. Suggestive evidence is also found for the existence of some "false consciousness" among subordinate classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of the concepts of role and consensus has been so well documented that it can now be treated as an assumption by sociologists. Still, however, the measurement of role consensus is not without difficulty since the concept itself imposes a number of methodological problems. This paper represents a suggestion of an alternative measurement combining a number of innovations from our present body of sociological knowledge. In brief, this involves the merger of the following: (1) the problem of comparing intraposition with interposition consensus; (2) the utilization of dyadic consensus; (3) the application of a correlational measure based on ordinal assumptions; and (4) the possibility of furthering the concerns of both macroscopic and microscopic analysis. Our approach will be direct and somewhat abbreviated in terms of (1) a brief rationale; (2) a working hypothesis; (3) a description of the instrument; (4) measurement; and (5) discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the paper of sociologist P.W. Musgrave entitled "Towards a Sociological Theory of Occupational Choice." He states that there is at present no sociological theory of occupational choice. Despite the fact that the explicit propositions of such a theory have not yet been stated formally, there is at present considerable consensus among sociologists on an implicit theory of occupational choice. The authors of this article will show how the various discussions of the process of occupational choice have been converging around one major theme, and then they shall make explicit the propositions involved in a sociological theory arising from this theme. It is just this focus on the process of reconciliation of values and expectations, which provides the common theme around which the discussions making up the second main approach have been tending to converge. Apart from those studies which are idiographic in implication on the one hand, and those, on the other hand, which are concerned with the correlates of differential socialization into occupational orientations, most sociological discussions of occupational choice have converged.

The article examines sociologist Talcott Parsons' political sociology by focusing exclusively on "voting." First, "voting" is one of Parsons' rare attempts to relate his theory of social systems to a set of empirical findings and interpretations dealing with contemporary political processes in the United States. Second, a careful perusal of the paper provides enough information from which to illustrate Parsons' general orientation to the study of politics. Third, the paper illuminates the value implications of Parsons' position on such important problems as political stability and change, power, conflict and consensus, leadership, citizenship, and democracy. Fourth, Parsons' later writings in this area tend to support and further elaborate the perspective developed in "voting." For these reasons, "voting" is representative of the bulk of Parsons' work in political sociology. The paper affords a useful inroad toward understanding Parsons' conception of politics in particular and, owing to his pervasive influence, pluralist theory in general.

This has been suggested that when a patient on a mental hospital ward becomes the object of covert disagreement among staff members, he will respond by an intensification of behavioral disturbance, and that this will subside only when the disagreement is exposed and resolved. This paper reports on an empirical investigation of this hypothesis, utilizing standard measures of disturbance and consensus. It was found that no significant relation could be demonstrated, for individual patients, between direction of change in staff consensus concerning patients and direction of change in their level of disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the perceptions of county executive committee members and county extension agents as to role expectations of county executive committee members in eight Pennsylvania counties. It also attempts to determine role-learning opportunities associated with role definition consensus and satisfaction among committeemen. Extension agents expected committee members to assume more responsibility than the members wanted in planning and executing the program. Committee members generally wanted more responsibility than the agents defined for them in establishing administrative policies and evaluating the program. Relatively high consensus was found for only one-third of the 32 role expectation items. Access to several role- learning opportunities was associated with agreement among committeemen on their role definition and also with satisfaction with the functioning of their committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an account of an experiment in the use of the so-called DELPHI method, which was devised in order to obtain the most reliable opinion consensus of a group of experts by subjecting them to a series of questionnaires in depth interspersed with controlled opinion feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theme for this Third World Congress for Rural Sociology was selected by a working group, which met in Rome, Italy at FAO headquarters in the summer of 1969. This group included eminent scholars with diverse national and cultural backgrounds. It, therefore, must be considered a commentary on the appropriateness of the theme selected that a consensus was achieved in a relatively short period of time. This theme, Development Policies and Rural Life, was considered in keeping with research and action programs, which were being implemented by rural sociologists and other social scientists in almost all nations of the world. In light of the serious nature of the deliberation with regards to the theme and program of the Congress and in view of the objective which inspired the decisions, it occurred to the author that it would be appropriate to attempt a paper which was keynoted on ways to lessen the degree of incoherence and incongruity which characterizes the arena within which sociologists contemplate the field of rural development. According to the author, his tact has been to scrutinize as objectively as possible the two separate but inextricably related issues over which controversy is centered.

This paper has attempted to deal with a central problem in the study of social integration—consensus or the lack of it. Socialization and preparation are inversely related to dissensus on respective role prescriptions as well as on the role prescriptions of other positions. Role specificity was also found to be inversely related to dissensus on respective role prescriptions. However, the relationship between role specificity and dissensus on role prescriptions of other positions was rather weak. Some support was found indicating a direct relationship between social distance and dissensus. It was suggested that the exceptions to the hypotheses might be due to the expanding role of the practical nurse, the bureaucratization of the registered nurse role, and the institutionalized role flexibility of the physician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes its point of departure in the current concern within political science and political sociology with a phenomenon, or rather a duster of related phenomena, which has been very noticeable in many post-World-War II western political systems taking the reference of Norway. This is the trend towards decreasing political conflict and increasing political consensus. This trend has been given various names. The essence of the author's criticism, so far as Norway is concerned, is that too much emphasis has been placed on the purely social and economic aspects of the historical development and too little on the character of the political institutions. In the Norwegian case the study of social movements has mainly the relevance to the problems of Norway because of the weakness of ascriptive values in the Norwegian civil servant upper class, and later in the business upper class, their ability to withstand the pressures from below and their tendency to co-opt the new elements have been rather marked traits of their political strategy, and their relatively un-military orientation due to the absence of military traditions and of a strong army has reinforced this tendency to appease rather than to fight back. A more political orientation is needed in order to account for their future fate, as in the case of the Norwegian trend towards political consensus.

The article presents an abstract of the paper "Individual Patterns in Historical Change: Imagery of Japanese Youth," by Robert Jay Lifton was published in the October 1964 of the periodical "Journal of Social Issues." This paper describes three patterns of time imagery encountered in contemporary Japanese youth. These are the mode of transformation, characterized by a vision of near-total remaking of social and individual existence, and by unconscious nostalgia for the past; the mode of restoration, characterized by a conscious urge to return to ennobling symbols of personal and cultural past, and by an unconscious fascination with modern symbols; and a mode of accommodation, a quest for a modus vivendi blending imagery closest to present experience, immediate future, and recent past. All three modes, in different fashions, promote historical change. They are frequently interchangeable, as they all share an emotional--symbolic substrate, which finds its individual model of unity in the mother-child relationship, and its cultural model in the stress upon social and racial harmony.

The article reports on diversity, consensus, and eclecticism in political science. Although there has been considerable debate recently about scope and method in the various social sciences, no discipline has been so involved in this as political science. The argument of this paper is threefold: the debate or dialogue is a sign of health rather than sickness, especially if the contestants really try to understand each other; in spite of the differences there is an underlying consensus on such basics as the need for a separate discipline dealing with things political and also on the general scope of this discipline as well as on the use of the scientific method; and where there are differences, and there are many, the best hope for the future lies in the continued use of an open-ended, eclectic approach which in fact is the approach of most political scientists. The third point in effect ties together the disagreement or diversity found in the first and the agreement or consensus found in the second. This may be illustrated in the name used to refer to the discipline. Although "political science" is the name most frequently used, "government" is also used as is "politics," "government and politics," and such also-rans as "public affairs," and "public law and government."

In a recent paper researchers pointed out the need for research on pairings leading to marriage, and specifically on the topic of amount of consensus between pair members as a function of their stage of courtship. There are several ways in which "consensus" can be defined in such a research problem. One is to compare the responses of pair members on attitude items, interest inventories, projective tests, or other personality measures for the purpose of determining the amount of agreement. Their results show pair members at whatever stage of court ship to have significantly greater agreement and empathy scores than do members of random pairs, and also that married pairs have significantly greater agreement and empathy than do "favorite date" pairs. When one makes a consensual response to the question "Who am I ?," it indicates that he has internalized his membership in the designated category, such as "husband," to the extent that it is an important part of his self-conception. Two types of hypotheses guided the research. The first type concerns shifts in conceptions as a function of stage of intimacy between pair members and is not related to out major problem of pair member consensus.

Two distinct meanings emerge from a review of the literature on consensus: agreement, and co-orientation. Using the second meaning, a conceptual definition of degree of consensus is formulated which is based on a social system model, rather than on individual system models. Drawing upon earlier research, two operational definitions of this model are proposed. Finally, a set of propositions relate degree of consensus in a group to the type of coordination which occurs between members of the group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on exchange theory and power in structural analysis. It provides a point of convergence between the competing models and suggests that each is concerned with different aspects of the same phenomenon rather than with differently conceived phenomena. Through consideration of all three models, discussed in the article, therefore, it should be possible to construct a genuine synthesis which places the distinctive contribution of each in its appropriate context. Exchange theory shares some of the concerns of both consensus and conflict models. With the former it is interested in value consensus and exchange between equals, with the latter it is interested in power structures and exchange between unequals. Unfortunately, it is least articulated and elaborated at the macro level and its distinctive contributions to a synthesis are thus hidden. Furthermore, exchange theory has neglected the sources of power and the nature of social structure in its concern with exchange and social process. Power is a generic term for the ability of a given social actor to attain its goals even in the face of opposition from other actors.

The article presents information on the political instability in independent black Africa. This paper is an attempt to (1) clarify conceptual approaches to the study of political instability, conflict and violence; (2) summarize and compare existing quantitative investigations of these phenomena in national political systems and (3) investigate empirical relationships between different kinds of political instability in contemporary African nations, which have been largely omitted from existing published work. Political systems are those structured social relationships in which values are authoritatively allocated, or in which it is determined "who gets what, when, how." Put otherwise, political relationships are that sub-set of social relations concerned with the goal-attainment of the society, or with getting and distributing the values which groups in society want. In social systems of maximum value-congruence, political behavior is literally the administration of valued things, but in societies where goals are not universally shared, politics is the distribution of things by authorities, whose social roles are based on the expectation that members of the society who do not receive the rewards they want will either voluntarily comply with authoritative decisions or be forced to comply.

This article presents information on the need for transportation planning as the development of transportation facilities affects our social, environmental and economic well being. This article proposes the use of Delphi technique as a method for improving communication among members of a multi-discipline design team for transportation planning. The Delphi technique in most applications has been used to produce a group consensus on possible future developments. The biggest advantage of using the Delphi technique for eliciting and processing judgmental data from a multi-discipline design team is that it provides a framework within which individuals with diverse backgrounds are able to work together on the same problem. The technique also gives all participants an equal opportunity to be heard. However, it may be time consuming. By using the Delphi technique, it becomes possible to determine which potential transportation developments are most likely to create the future transportation system desired by society, as defined by the multi-discipline design team. This information could then be used as an input by technicians in planning and developing future transportation systems.

This article presents information on models of community conflict. In terms of the peace issue, a conflict model implies that peace can only be gained through conflict resolution; a consensus model implies that peace can be gained by conflict control. Conflict implies resolution because it assumes victory of one side over the other, hence the elimination of the cause of the conflict. Consensus implies control because it assumes agreement among the parties rather than the elimination of one of them; it frequently assumes that agreement equals conflict control or management, which equals conflict resolution, since conflict is not inherent in the situation. Conflict is perceived in the consensus model as an incidental dysfunction, in the conflict model as inherent in the situation. If it is incidental, it can be resolved through management; if it is inherent, it can be resolved only through abolition. The consensus model is usually an elitist model because it implies the continued existence of systems as they are and attempts to reconcile theft differences by negotiation. It is not inherently elitist; but it is elitist where elites rule and is democratic only where decisions are democratically arrived at.

Three research approaches to the problems of decision making in local communities have been employed. One type of approach has focused on the characteristics of decision makers as the prime explanation of the decisions they make. A second approach has looked to the social environment of the decision maker for the major explanation, seeing in the activities of partisans—power or influence wielders—the major explanation for the types of decisions made. The third approach has centered on the decision-making process, attempting to follow an issue from inception to settlement. The author evaluates each approach, summarizing at the same time the major information each has yielded. A strategy for further research is suggested calling for comparative studies of decision makers in different institutional settings as they work through the careers of a variety of community issues. Such comparative studies will be able to transcend the particular and lead to a generalized frame of reference for understanding decision making in the local community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the cohesion and disunity in the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) observed during the 1965 Eight World Congress in Amsterdam, Netherlands. For an international trade union federations to be cohesive it is necessary that there is a consensus among the principal affiliates on objectives, policies and methods of operation. The presence of rival delegations from Tunisia, the allocation of ICFTU Executive Board seats between the U.S. and Canada and the press conference of union leader George Meany are the incidents that provoked public controversy in Amsterdam.

This article provides the body of the AFL-CIO No-Raiding Agreement. It has been recognized that disunity is disruptive to labor relations and collective bargaining both within and outside of the trade union movement. Representatives of organized labor have sought to unite the two major federations in a single house of labor since the formation of the CIO in 1935. The document of the agreement represents a new approach to unity. The parties to the agreement believe that it is only a first step toward organic unity and that many problems remain to be solved.

The author reflects on the political stability and the dominant image of society in Great Britain. According to the author, the primary calls for explanation is not just about the intricacy in conventional terms of constitutional lore, but the sufficient stability of institution forms so that constitutional forms lore may plausibly be elaborated all.

Looks at how the entry the entry of new members into an established group alters the group's provision of a pure public good for itself when that aggregate provision of the public good is regulated by myopic and Cournot type individualism. Description of cournot behavior; Effect of new entrants on group provision; Factors that affect group provision.

The problem of order and the age-old debate over conflict and consensus continues to animate modern social theory. The article critically appraises sociologist Edward Shils' relatively uncelebrated contribution in the rescue of the classical consensual view of society from its current state of disrepute by fusing it with tenets derived from conflict framework. Shils' theory of society builds upon the premise that 'Every society, seen macro-sociologically, may be interpreted as a centre and a periphery.' These 'zones' have both a structural and a cultural aspect. Defined in terms of structure, the centre consists of those institutions and roles which exercise authority, while the periphery consists of those strata or sectors of society which are recipients of commands and of beliefs which they do not themselves create or cause to be diffused. Alongside the institutional structure of authority relations, Shils suggests that every society also acquires a central cultural system. Unlike 'orthodox' consensus theorists who see consensus deriving from a natural identity of interest served by a common stake in cooperative activity, Shils explicitly rejects the notion that a fundamental harmony of interest undergirds social order.

This study uses a conflict model to test the processes of opinion modification which sometimes lead to consensus. The apparent paradox of explaining such processes through conflict is resolved by examining the definition of consensus given by A. Craig Baird, a definition which stresses the process involved in reaching consensus, not the outcome of unanimity. The rationale called for a study of group-solving in which the independent variables of substantive and affective verbal input are controlled in order to measure both the individual verbal contributions of subjects and the process of reaching a solution.

The question of national unity for the new states of Africa stands at the centre of their political problems. Progress in a variety offields is blocked until they are able to resolve internally the constitutional question of loyalty to a new system of authority which was conceived under colonialism and made a reality through nationalist drives for independence. Africa, more than any other continent, is troubled by the divisions between ethnic, racial, and religious groups who found temporary consensus in the struggle against the common colonial enemy, but who, having achieved independence, find the principle of self-determination now internally a divisive force against a unified national polity and purpose.According to James Coleman and Carl Rosberg, ‘Just as the one-party trend is the most striking feature of the political structure of new African states, so the problems of integration are the major issues and obstacles in the task of nation-building, which is itself the primary preoccupation of the leadership of the new states.’ [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Differences were found in the perception of ethnic groups in the degree of consensus on the occupation associated with each group. Perceived ethnic-role specialization affects the content, but not the process of stereotyping. Ethnic stereotypes were changed by presenting ethnic persons in occupations often associated and seldom associated with the group. Different traits were assigned to ethnic persons in modal and nonmodal roles. Role stereotypes were used more often to describe an ethnic ptrson in a nonmodal role, the greater the association of the ethnic group with an occupation. Many of the stereotypes evoked by the modal occupation were the same as the stereotypes evoked by the ethnic concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws attention to a form of behavior that, because it is universal and obvious, has neither been clearly identified nor systematically studied. Self-role interaction is the general context in which will be sought the identification and location of the concept of "rolecentrism." The construct of role has a secure place both in sociology and in psychology. Despite widely divergent definitions, behavioral scientists continue to find it a highly useful explanatory concept. There is value in examining a network of interlocking roles in terms of behavior, expectations, or attributes for consensus or dissensus wherein the person is not the focus of interest. There can be no question of the value of such faceless research. In an earlier study that focused on the critical requirements for the foreman's position, foremen as well as their subordinates and immediate superiors shared with the writer critical incidents in which a foreman had behaved in an outstandingly effective or ineffective way.

The effects of reinforcement, social approval and sex on conformity were studied. Seventy-two male and 72 female college Ss were divided into equal high and low need for social approval groups. Each group was assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conformity conditions: (a) True-agree; (b) neutral; and (c) true-disagree. The groups were tested via a social conformity apparatus. It was found that: (a) Reinforcement for agreeing with a contrived group consensus (true-agree group) elicited more conformity than social pressure without reinforcement (neutral group), which in turn elicted more conformity than reinforcement for disagreeing with the consensus (truedisagree group); (b) females conformed more than males; (c) there was a slight tendency for high social approval Ss to conform more than low social approval Ss. Conformity was explained in terms of social learning, and it was suggested that the situational factor of reinforcement was a more important determinant of conformity than the motivational factor of social approval. The modified conformity scoring procedure used focuses on the conformity process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the use of panel consensus technique in problem solving. Benefits of the technique; Organization of panel members; Action levels involved in the panel consensus technique.

The article discusses the literature approaches used in teaching family courses. In using imaginative literature for family insights the educator is faced by a choice as to how much of the one or the other should be emphasized. This choice raises the issue of teaching goals in the family course or unit. There is broad consensus on assisting the student in developing an understanding of the relationships in modern marriage. One of the approach seeks to relate the emotional returns from reading fiction to the goal of intellectual growth.

The utility of examining the family as a formal organization receives support from an empirical study of 73 families. The interaction between two organization variables, family consensus and problem perception, and the relationship between these variables and the effectiveness of the family in its socialization function are considered. The success of socialization is measured by the adjustment and achievement of the family's adolescent son in school. The findings are discussed in the light of organization theory and research methodology in small groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For college couples who were seriously considering marriage, measures of need complementarity (Schutz's FIRO scales) and value consensus (Farber's index of consensus) were compared with progress toward permanence over a seven month period. Consensus was found to be significantly related to progress for only the short-term couples, and complementarity was significant for only the long-term couples. These findings are interpreted as indicating that a series of "filtering factor?' operate in mate selection with social status variables (class, religion, etc.) operating early in the relationship, consensus on values somewhat later, and need complementarity still later. The delay in the effectiveness of the complementarity factor is seen as due to stylized boy-girl interaction and unrealistic idealization of the loved one in the early stages of the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herbert Spencer's was an experimental rather than a consistent mind. At times he insisted that society is a unity rather than a multiplicity; at other times he took the view that society is a multiplicity rather than a unity; and sometimes he taught that society is initially a multiplicity, but a multiplicity with an inherent tendency to develop into a unity. "The Principles of Sociology" propagate the first theory; "The Man versus the State" the second; "The Principles of Psychology" the third. It was this third doctrine which had the greatest influence on sociology because it inspired Sumner's folkway concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on consensus and mass communication. Before exploring the nature and conditions of consensus, it seems appropriate to indicate the salient characteristics of mass societies. As one looks back upon previous social aggregations, such as those of the ancient kingdoms, or at their greatest extent the Roman Empire, one wonders how, given the primitive communications that obtained, such impressive numbers and territories could be held together under a common regime over any considerable span of time. Since one shall speak of the society as mass society and of the communication that it involves as mass communication, it be hooves to depict the characteristics of the mass. Its most obvious trait is that it involves great numbers, in contradistinction to the smaller aggregates with which people have become familiar through the study of primitive life and earlier historical forms of human association. Second, and again, almost by definition, it consists of aggregates of men widely dispersed over the lace of the earth, as distinguished from the compact local groups of former periods.

A community can be considered a group of people interacting on formal, semiformal, and informal levels within a spatial referent. As a result of this interaction, some degree of consensus concerning community boundaries should exist. An approach to community delineation through a community-member-group method should thus be feasible. A consensus index can be developed to measure the amount of agreement. Such an approach, applied in Pennsylvania, gave preliminary evidence of validity and a higher rate of boundary-placement agreement than a comparable trade-area delineation. Rural sociologists have typically expressed concern over the community as a unit for scientific study, an area for facilitating local action, and a theme for sociological theory development. They have explored its composition, its internal functions, its relations to institutions, and the interaction patterns in and between communities. The wide use made of trade-area delineation does not indicate complete acceptance of it as a method incorporating all the essentials of community life.

The article discusses the role of the social scientist in society, with special reference to research on human relations and personality development in large organizations. At a time when social science is increasing in power and salience, when there are increasing demands upon it and increasing criticism of it, social scientists would do well to continue their efforts to be quite clear about their roles and functions, their aims and values. The situation of social scientists who would study large organizations is not unlike that confronting the psychoanalysts, or other new schools of psychotherapy, in the early days of their work. The major difficulties confronting the social researcher in large organizations spring not so much from a want of accumulated experience in practical matters as from ambiguity in his own, and in other people's conceptions of his roles.

This article deliberates on why economics is not being treated as a science. It is opined that there is ample reason to believe that those who are applying themselves to the field of economics in this mid-twentieth century, have a radically different conception of true knowledge. Problems involved in the production and distribution of wealth today must be solved by man-made laws, positive law, not natural law. A science, whether it be astronomy, chemistry, physics, or biology, is based on natural laws, that is, on laws of nature which are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and the same in the U.S., Greenland, and South Africa. In other words, in all real sciences, there are universal laws, the existence of which all who are specialists in the field concerned, agree. In economics, however, there is little on which there is agreement; one economist will interpret one set of observations in one way and another economist in another way. In economics, there is no body of accepted truth, no consensus of recognized authority, that one may without question accept.

One main reason the Great Society never took off was that its programs were not buttressed by a thorough bargaining process with the appropriate interests. While innovative programs can be ‘sold’ to the voters, a consensus among the myriad interest groups and publics that comprise the American polity, such as supported federal aid to education, is vital if they are to survive. To this end, a mechanism that would function outside our relatively ineffectual representative structure, one used successfully in France, is proposed: participatory planning. Existing components of such a plan and others that would be required, such as more sophisticated social data, are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the structure of socialization in a graduate school. The influence of certain social structural factors in psychologically oriented discussions of the socialization process have been emphasized. Psychological theories of learning as they are applied to socialization are useful as they help in understanding connections between cues and responses. The content of socialization and the conditions for learning vary greatly between societies and between sub-groups within a society. The criteria for selecting socializing agents and neophytes, the basic assumptions made about their nature, and the way they are expected to perform their roles vary with the organization in which socialization occurs. Through prolonged interaction the values and norms of socialization produce relatively enduring stable relationships between members of a social system. These relationships constitute a social structure whose salient features include the division of labor, the expression of affect and the flow of communication, the nature and distribution of power and authority, and the degree of consensus and conflict. An adequate understanding of the socialization process in an organization engaged in training disciplinary specialists is not possible.

The article discusses a research on decision-making and consensus-building in foreign policy formulation. Considering that decisions of the government are often perceived as discrete actions with definite beginnings and decisive endings, the author argues that only a few acts of government can be considered as such. Using a model of conflict and consensus-building, the research investigates the diverse and inconsistent objectives of national policies, complexities of policy processes and the bargaining and power in the relations of reconciled policies. The author categorizes the results of the study into: the participants in foreign policies, roles and functions of the participants and the pattern of relationships and workings of the system as a whole.

It is the contention of this article that there has been a pronounced tendency in sociology to under-emphasize the study of values and moral issues, and that the cause of this is twofold: the cultural and organizational climate within which sociologists operate and the lack of consensus among them on a conceptual framework within which accumulative research on values could occur. The article has attempted to assess the current level of accomplishment in the field of value study and to suggest possible reasons for the apparent lack of progress. The need for an increased emphasis on this aspect of social relations is considered sufficiently urgent to warrant a renewed effort toward the achievement of a measure of consensus in theory. The premise that human social action is an integral part of a totally interrelated, determined but largely undeterminable universe of matter is offered as a possible starting point. It is hoped that the model of value change proposed might eventually prove capable of generating hypotheses concerning cultural and social change and the relation of such change to value systems.

The article begins with a discussion of the influence of a follower upon a leader. It shows how the leader may become entrammelled in the very source of his legitimacy. It also discusses implications of this approach for an understanding of that most exacting and non-ritualistic form of leadership, sometimes known as democratic leadership. Success in leadership does not merely depend on having certain abilities, nor does it depend only on having any very specific personality characteristics, but also on a third requirement, leaders attitude to his own position. This is not unrelated to personality characteristics but differs in that an individual can perform well in a position that he feels he has a right to, and yet badly in one he feels he has no right to. The difference between these last two is brought out by what may well be considered a cautionary tale. The leader must adjudicate amongst his jealous followers, for it is he who must uphold the authority, which is the basis of his legitimacy.

A number of writers on political behavior have recently focused their attention on the degree of consensus necessary to the maintenance of a stable democratic system. As an indicator of consensus, professor Seymour Martin Lipset has suggested the extent to which all sections of the population react in the same direction to major stimuli. However, there are grounds for arguing that the notion of consensus is not quite so straightforward, or unidimensional, as this approach would suggest. The purpose of the article to clarify two different implications underlying the notion of consensus and to suggest a way of presenting cross-national comparisons based on voting statistics so as to bring out both of these implications. Data from Great Britain, Canada and Australia are used in order to illustrate the method. The graphical method which seems the clearest is put forward. The method is to plot a graph showing the proportion of manual and non-manual voters voted left or right in successive elections in different countries. Each election is represented by a single point on the graph, so that it becomes possible both to compare one country with another and to trace a trend in the voting behavior of a single country. The result of any given election cannot, of course, be deduced from the graph, but it is possible to trace both uniformity of swing to the left or right and also any trend towards or away from a situation of minimal class conflict.

This article discusses the consensus of young children and their parents on the socioeconomic status characteristics of their families. The parents and children responded to similar questions about parental occupation and education. Answers to the occupational inquiries were coded into the ten standard U.S. Census Bureau categories. Over-all correlations were computed, as were separate correlations for subgroups based on race, sex, and age of child, and location of interview. Higher correlations are found when the child is familiar with the level of education he is reporting for his parents. The lowest correlations are found when the modal education for a group involves postgraduate study. The ten occupational categories were collapsed into white- and blue-collar groups, while the nine educational categories were collapsed into two groups of less than high school graduate and high school graduate or more. Few errors in the reports on occupation were clustered near the blue-collar, white-collar dichotomizing point, while most of the errors in the reports on education were within adjacent categories.

The article presents information on some pilot studies of communication and consensus in the family. Studies of groups can be classified according to whether the groups are artificial or ad hoc or temporary on the one hand or permanent and persisting like the family on the other. They also focus either on power and participation, or on consensus and communication. And role allocation, though often considered as a manifestation of power structure, is not always the same thing, a random relationship was found between power structures on the one hand and structures of task allocation on the other, indicating that the "traditional" and "companionate" types often discussed in the literature may not represent the facts of the current scene. Studies of power within the family based on questions about who makes the decisions, who initiated the idea, or who prevails have produced variable results, and results that do not agree with findings on whether the husband or wife can predict best what the family actually does. Hence, it seemed appropriate to ask what was holding up studies of communication and consensus, as a way of providing some better background information for family decision processes, as well as useful data on what kind of information one could expect to secure from husband alone or wife alone in a personal interview.