Functionalist Perspective: Stuffed Pizza

Understanding Policies (10700193-90)

Yue Hu

Tsinghua University

Administrtive

• Annotated Bibliography
• Final proposal

Good Annotated Bibliography (AB)

Steps to get a good AB:

1. Topic Selection: Choose a specific public policy issue you wish to analyze.
   • Ensure your topic is not too broad;
     • It should be focused enough to allow for an empirical investigation.
2. Research:
   • 5 academic articles
   • New articles are favored
3. Evaluation: Critically evaluate each source for its credibility, relevance, and contributions to the field of public policy regarding your topic.
   • Consider the authors’ qualifications, the publication date, and the source’s purpose.

Format requirements

• Citation: For each source, provide a consistent and well-used reference format, e.g., APSR, APA.
• Annotation: Below each citation, write an annotation that summarizes the source’s key points, its relevance to your topic, and any critical insights or findings.
  • More than one sentence at least

Example 1 (Overqualified)

Smith, J. A., & Doe, E. B. (2020). The impact of environmental policy on economic growth. Journal of Public Policy Analysis, 35(4), 645-669.

Annotation: This article explores the relationship between environmental regulation and economic growth, using a comparative analysis of policies in the United States and Germany. The authors employ a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative data analysis with qualitative interviews. Their findings suggest that while strict environmental policies may have a short-term negative impact on economic growth, they contribute to sustainable development in the long term. This source is particularly relevant to my project as it provides a nuanced perspective on the economic effects of environmental policies, a central theme in my analysis. The methodology section also offers insights into effective research designs for policy analysis.

Example 2 (Overqualified)

Lee, C. R. (2019). Education reform and student performance: A review of state policies. Education Policy Review, 27(2), 234-255.

Annotation: Lee’s comprehensive review article assesses the impact of various state-level education reforms on student academic performance in the United States. By synthesizing results from multiple empirical studies, the author identifies key factors that contribute to the success or failure of educational policies. Lee argues for a balanced approach to reform, one that considers both accountability measures and support for educators. This source is invaluable for my proposal, as it highlights the complexity of education policy and the need for evidence-based approaches. The extensive bibliography provides a useful starting point for further research.

Final project example

Overview

1. Functionalism
2. Structural functionalism
3. Deconstruction of structural functionalism

Functionalism

What’s Functionalism

• Biology
• Philosophy
• Sociology
• Political Science

Focus:

Internal structure

What it can achieve/change (purpose, utility)

Sociology: Emile [ei’mi:l] Durkheim [ˈdɜːkhaɪm], 涂尔干

• Sociology: Every part of society serves a purpose; all parts are indispensable for survival. Prominent in 19th-c. sociologists who saw societies as organisms.
• Philosophy: What makes a mental state is not its internal makeup but its function in the system.
• Architecture: Form follows function—utility over ornament (early 20th c.).

Functionalism in Understanding Policies

• Popular since 1960s: Political development in newly independent countries

(习近平 2025)

“优化现代化城市体系，必须促进大中小城市和小城镇协调发展。要推动超大特大城市“强身健体”，做强做精核心功能，控制超大城市规模，合理有序疏解非核心功能，打造高质量发展主引擎。”

The approaches for the U.S. and European politics didn’t work for new countries

Almond, Gabriel Abraham, and James Smoot Coleman. 1960. The Politics of the Developing Areas. Princeton University Press.

Almond, Gabriel A., and G. Bingham Jr. Powell. 1978. Comparative Politics: System, Process, and Policy. 2nd edition. Boston: Scott Foresman & Co.

Practice: Define Annotated Bibliography

From a functionalist view?

Wrap up

• Functionalism meaning different stuff in different fields
• Common ground is the focuses on the meaning for running the system

What does structural functionalism mean then?

Structural Functionalism

http://udel.edu/~jdeiner/strufunc.html http://www.politicalsciencenotes.com/articles/almonds-model-structural-functionalism/735

Remember the system theory?

What’s in the box is unknown but important

Difficulty: You can’t open the box or every box is different

Solution: “Unbox without opening the box”

1. Constructing Structures with functions
2. Incorporating system changes

what does a structure (guerrilla movement, political party, election, etc.) do within the political system (of country x)?

Define functional structure in layers

• Outer-layer: system
  • A interdependent integrity of within parts and a boundary from the environment
  • Conversion process, basic pattern maintenance, and various capabilities (distributive, symbolic, etc.)

Countries under a structural functionalist view

Developing countries have a simpler system, and developed have a complex one, but both have structures with similar functions.

• Middle-layer: structures
  • Maintain or change system characteristics
  • Organizations and institutions, e.g., political party, legislature, executive, judiciary, interest group, officials

Inner Layer： Functions

• System(structure(function))
  • Interacts with domestic and foreign environments
  • Input and output (🥳)
    • Input: political socialization & recruitment, interest articulation/aggregation, and political communication
    • Output: rule-making, rule implementation/adjudication

Caution

Some structures may perform others’ function: executive has legislature functions

• the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has been instrumental in cutting over 100,000 jobs and freezing foreign aid. This level of restructuring typically requires legislative approval, but Trump has leveraged executive orders to bypass Congress.
• 部门立法：该制度很可能由人力资源和社会保障部等特定部门制定，而非全国人大或国务院直接立法。这些部门在社会保障和劳动就业领域拥有专业知识和管理职权。

Typology of Functions

System function

Maintaining or changing structures

• political socialization
• political recruitment
• political communication

Process function

Processing to make the system run

• Interest expression
• Interest synthesis
• Law and decision-making

Policy function

Application and integration in the government for the outcome of the process function

System Theory → Structural Functionalism

Changes of the system

Political Development

1. Penetration (elites → masses)
2. Commitment (elites ← masses)
3. Participation (elites ↔︎ masses)
4. Distribution (elites → masses)

System Change (Inevitable)

• Political system: Openness
• Environments → adaptions and adjustment
• Stability bias → Conservative, evolutionary changes

Motivations (esp. for sys changes)

1. Elites and their associates
2. Social groups
3. System’s own demands

Penetration: Whether political elites can get what they want from people over whom they seek to exercise power (Joseph LaPalombara, poli sci Yale)

Wrap Up

• Three layers of structural functionalism
  • System: A interdependent integrity of within parts and a boundary from the environment
  • Structure: Organizations and institutions: Maintain or change system characteristics
  • Function: Interacts with domestic and foreign environments
• Structural functionalism explain system changes
  1. Elites and their associates
  2. Social groups
  3. System’s own demands

Deconstructing Structural Functionalism

Microanalytic View

Where rational choice theory wants to simplify, the micro-version of structural-functionalism calls for enrichment (Lane 1994, 466).

Focus

1. Actors
2. Goal (Interests)
3. Interaction

Dissect the process

Actors

The actors are groups:

1. Elites
2. Masses
3. Governments

Any individuals in this picture?

Yes, leaders

Goal

Actors have fixed preference orders and move strategically to maximize their interests.

Where are the interests from?

• Economics: Utility function
  
• Poli sci/sociologist: Non-universal, narrow, monetary ✓

⇓

Social equilibria

Structural-functionalism: brings political culture in

Pye: Elites behave differently in different countries and circumstances

民主党（Union, LGBTQ, environmentalists） vs. 共和党

Interaction (Micro → Macro, changes)

1. Each actor evaluates goals and opportunities → conform/fight
2. Game
   • All actor conform → system stable
   • Fighter vs. conformer → fighter wins
   • Fighter vs. fighter → “Stronger” wins
3. Winners rerule the system
4. The process repeats in the new system.

conform: following the existing rule

What Structural Functionalism Achieves (and Don’t)

Contribution

• → system theory: Bring the variety and variance into the system:
  1. Varieties of the institutions, leaders, social configurations
  2. Variances in space and time
• → rational choice:
  1. Dynamics and variance of goals and interests
  2. Micro-macro connection

Issues

1. Concept stretching: e.g., system, interactions
2. Actor exclusion
3. Normative bias
4. “A theory about social wholes as social wholes”?

From anthropology.
Giovanni Satori, David Collier

Only a mere number of structures

Pro-capitalism

Take-Home Points

• Functionalism
  • Focus: Purposes and effects
• Structural functionalism
  • System
    • Structure
      • Functions

• Deconstruction
  • Actors
  • Goals & interests
  • Interactions

Reference

Lane, Ruth. 1994. “Structural-Functionalism Reconsidered: A Proposed Research Model.” Comparative Politics 26 (4): 461–77. https://doi.org/10.2307/422026.

习近平. 2025. “在中央城市工作会议上的讲话.” Presented at the 中央城市工作会议, 北京, July 14.